Black and Gold
by Padfootsshoe
Summary: Hermione grew up as a pureblood with the Marauders. Despite her blood status, her beliefs remained the same, and after a chance meeting with Sirius as children, their lives are inexplicably changed. How does Hermione's presence alter the path of the Marauders? One thing is certain, there will be no plain sailing, especially where Sirius Black and a looming war are involved. {HG/SB}
1. The ball that changed everything

**Hi guys! This is the first chapter of what I hope will be a long story. I always appreciate feedback, so feel free to review. It's the summer now so updates should be quite frequent, no promises from the end of September however.**

Hermione stared out of her bedroom window and watched as her twin brother Nial played outside with his friends, Miles Mulciber and Theon Flint. All three 10-year-old boys were on broomsticks and currently trying to throw quaffles through one of the three Quidditch hoops, situated to the left of the maze in Hermione's garden. None of the boys were impressed by the size of the Avery manor as not only had they seen it before, but they all lived in places of a similar calibre. However, to someone from a less affluent background the manor was extremely impressive. The building was made from stone and had many turrets protruding from various sides, and from these turrets one could clearly view the entire Avery estate which stretched for miles; the most prominent feature being the large maze that took up more than 10 acres of land on the property. However, the inside of the manor was inarguably more impressive, with the design emulating that of every other pureblood's home in the U.K. Everywhere you could look there were portraits and statues that were thousands of years old, and not a speck of dirt was present anywhere due to the work of the numerous house elves the Avery family owned.

Hermione felt as though she was the only person in the world that could not stand the manor, and when she was given the opportunity to design her own room she had of course jumped at the idea. Instead of the dark colours that featured prominently in the rest of the house, Hermione had opted for silvers and golds, and as her bedroom was in one of the turrets, she was able to turn one of the walls into a massive window overlooking the estate. Hermione's mother had of course not let Hermione have a sub-par room and so everything was overly ornate, but at least it was cheerful. The bed was a shimmering silver, with a gold bed frame, and all of the furniture was gold while the curtains and carpet matched the bed sheets. Hermione had had to promise that the amount of gold in no way meant she wanted to be in Gryffindor once she reached Hogwarts age. Hermione had decided that this small lie was preferable to the consequences were her parents to know that the gold represented exactly that.

Remaining on the window seat, Hermione turned away from watching her brother and looked back down to the book she was reading. No matter how hard she tried, she could not concentrate on the words swimming before her, as she was just too nervous. Hermione had never been overly confident and hated being the centre of attention, which was why the ball coming that night had made her feel sick for the last several days. Hermione had been a very sick child, and the doctors had not been convinced of her survival beyond her childhood years, and so for this reason her parents had decided to hide her existence. Had it been any normal disease her parents would probably have not been ashamed, but as it was, the disease could only be contracted by children of parents closely related to each other and while incest was a common occurrence among pure blood families, especially those of the sacred twenty-eight, it was still something to be hidden and left unacknowledged. It was not until Hermione was declared healed ('a miracle!' the doctors had exclaimed as no one had ever been known to fight the disease) that it had become a possibility for Hermione to be introduced into pure blood society. That night was going to be the first time Hermione had ever met anyone besides her brother, parents and house elves, and to say she was nervous was an understatement.

As Hermione had not been allowed to be around people, she developed an avid obsession with fiction and had read every fictitious book she could get her hands on. However, she could not stand non-fiction books and had often been told off by her father, who tutored her in his spare time so that she would not be behind her brother who had formal lessons three times a week with a tutor. Try as she might, Hermione just could not gain a passion for learning as she would much rather delve into a book and pretend she many friends, and boys falling at their feet for her. It was so much more exciting! The prospect of making actual friends that evening was the only thing Hermione was looking forward to. Whenever Nial had had friends round, Hermione was forced to go to her room and not be seen, but that would all change this evening!

Hermione let out a squeal of shock and promptly fell off her window seat as a loud POP sounded in her bedroom.

'Tiny is sorry miss!' Hermione's house elf exclaimed as she ran over to help Hermione stand.

'That's the fourth time I've injured myself this week,' Hermione grumbled as she stood up. 'It's not your fault Tiny, maybe one day I'll get used to magic.' Hermione was very clumsy person, and often hurt herself due to the unfortunate fact. Tiny happened to be the main reason for Hermione's shock as the elf had an uncanny ability to arrive at the times when Hermione was most distracted, or absorbed in her thoughts. Tiny was Hermione's personal house elf, given to her when she was a one-year-old as her mother had struggled to juggle being a socialite with a darling son, and also caring for Hermione while she was ill. Hermione loved Tiny as much as, if not more than, the rest of her family.

'Tiny is here to get you ready for ball, Miss Hermione!' Tiny squeaked enthusiastically, pulling her tattered cloth sleeve back up over her shoulder. Hermione gulped, she hadn't realised it was only two hours until the ball.

'Okay Tiny, will mum be coming to help?' Hermione questioned while walking to the bathroom attached to the bedroom, once more decorated in gold and silver.

'Miss has said she cannot come, she is too busy overseeing the decorating in the ball room,' Tiny said with a frown as she ran Hermione a bath.

'Oh'.

Hermione climbed into the bath and let Tiny wash her, spending extra time conditioning Hermione's hair which, while was only wavy, could turn itself into knots in a matter of seconds. Hermione had inherited the Avery hair trait of brown waves; the knots however were completely unique to her. Once Hermione was out of the bath and sat in her dressing gown while Tiny dried and curled Hermione's hair, she asked in a nervous whisper,

'Tiny, do you think I will make any friends?'

'Of course Miss will make friends!' Tiny exclaimed. 'Miss will be the belle of the ball and will no longer have to read her books.'

Hermione smiled at that, no matter how many friends she may make she would never stop reading. Two and a half hours later, Hermione was led over to the mirror by Tiny, who had assured her that while the guests were to arrive half an hour ago, Hermione still had ten minutes until her grand entrance. Hermione smiled when she saw herself; her usually manic hair had been calmed and turned into delicate ringlets that bounced as she turned this way and that in front of the mirror, accentuating her youthful features such as her round cheeks and wide, bright blue eyes (another Avery trait). Her straight cut dress fell to below her knees and was a deep forest green, picked by her mother, ever the slytherin. Hermione felt pretty as she twirled around in front of the mirror, like one of the older girls from the books she read, and she turned around to give Tiny a hug.

'You is looking beautiful, Miss,' Tiny beamed. 'It is being time for your entrance.'

Nervously, Hermione took Tiny's hand as the smile fell from her face and she headed towards the largest of the manor's ballrooms. Hermione's mother had informed her that all the pure-blooded children her age in the country were going to be there, blood traitors excluded of course. Hermione personally thought blood purity was ridiculous, and long ago promised herself should she be allowed to make a friend she wouldn't let a silly thing like blood stop her. Reaching the entrance of the ballroom Hermione met Nial, who was going to walk her down the stairs once she was introduced. As this could happen at any second she and her brother immediately took their position holding hands and looking straight ahead and Nial only had time to whisper 'I bet you trip down the steps,' before the doors swung open.

Gulping, Hermione looked down determinedly at her feet, desperate to make sure she didn't topple over and instantly forgetting her etiquette lessons. Rule number 12: always look up with your back straight, never at your feet. Once she made it down the marble staircase she looked up triumphantly only to immediately meet the glare of her mother. 'Oh yeah,' she thought, 'rule number 12'. Silence stretched out as Hermione looked around nervously, hundreds of eyes on her. Doing a quick curtsey once she remembered, Hermione let out a breath as music began to play and the focus was brought away from her.

'You have to walk around with mum for a bit while she introduces you to people, I'm gonna go find my friends,' Nial said dismissively as he wandered into the crowd.

'Nial wait!' Hermione hissed, but it was too late, her brother was gone. Hermione very suddenly wished she was back in her bedroom with her books as she felt her mother's hand clamp down on her shoulder. Hermione looked briefly up at her mother and saw a very fake smile plastered on her face, her blonde hair scraped back into a bun at the back of her head as she guided Hermione towards a group of adults, including Hermione's father.

'Remember your cover story,' her mother whispered as they neared. Hermione of course was not allowed to let anyone know the true reason for her anonymity in the wizarding world for all these years, and so instead her parents made up a story for her. If anyone were to ask, which was most likely, Hermione was to say that she had been in France with a distant cousin, so as to gain the more glamourous education system of Beauxbatons, a French wizarding school which you could only go to if you were brought up in the country. However, the untimely death of her cousin had sent her back into the arms of her loving parents who had simply missed their darling daughter too much to let her leave again. It was a good thing Hermione had been forced to become fluent in French since a young age, as was the case with most pure-blood children.

Hermione curtsied once more and half listened as the adults gushed over how cute she was, choosing to focus more on the ballroom. Hermione had never been here during an actual ball and was slightly disappointed by the lack of change. Her mother could not possibly have spent the whole day decorating the room as the inherently ornate ballroom, while impressive, looked the same as usual. The only change was the platform added with a string quartet playing classical music, and the table laden with expensive wines and champagne. Hermione was brought back to the conversation when she was directly addressed by a woman introduced as Walburga Black.

'So, Hermione, you are ten years old yes?' the woman asked sternly as she looked down at Hermione and scrutinised her, and Hermione was instantly scared of this woman with her pinched face and rigid posture.

'Yes mam,' Hermione replied quietly, itching to run off and find her brother, or just hide from the gaze of Walburga.

'So Hogwarts next year then, you should be in the same house as my son Sirius, he will join at the same time as you. Let's all hope she grows into her hair,' Walburga addressed this to the other adults instead of Hermione, who was busy feeling very sorry for the boy with such an unfortunate name as Sirius, although she herself could not talk with a name like Hermione. Hermione ignored the dig at her hair.

It was a long time before her mother allowed her to leave the adults and go in search of her brother, only due to Hermione's constant zoning out of the conversations. Hermione knew she would be in trouble but the social pandering was extremely boring. She had never heard her mother laugh so much at blatantly unfunny jokes made by Abraxas Malfoy, he must be very important.

Hermione soon found her brother among a large group of people her own age and went over with trepidation. She tugged on Nial's sleeve, interrupting him as the eyes of seven children turned to look at her.

Nial sighed at the interruption and turned to face his friends, 'Everyone, this is my twin sister Hermione.'

While the introduction was lacking, Hermione had been dreaming of making a friend all her life and was not going to turn down this opportunity. Turning on her best smile Hermione looked around the circle of people and stuck her hand out at the nearest girl, 'Hi!' she exclaimed.

The girl smiled hesitantly and shook Hermione's hand, 'Hi, I'm Daisy Parkinson.'

Hermione went to say something else but was immediately talked over by her brother.

'As I was saying,' Nial carried on. 'Me and Miles were hid around the corner, and Theon guided the elf to where we were. When we jumped out the elf was so scared it fainted!' At this point, every child present began to laugh but Hermione looked at him in horror.

'NIAL!' She shouted over the laughter, despite knowing she should keep quiet. 'That's a horrible thing to do!'

A boy that Hermione recognised as Nial's friend Miles glared at her, 'No it wasn't, they're elves.'

'So?' Hermione challenged Miles, 'they have feelings and you were mean to one. You acted like a bully!' Hermione knew that this would not go down well, but while she wanted to make friends, the one that she did have was an elf and the thought of someone being mean to Tiny like that made her see red.

At this point, Daisy interrupted, 'At least he's not some freak from France! Honestly Nial, your sister is so weird.'

'All I did was defend a house elf!' Hermione was very confused about how this escalated so quickly, surely they should be on her side. She looked to her brother for him to defend her, but he was glaring at her along with all of the other children.

'Hermione, you should go,' Nial said to her, 'I'm gonna tell mum about this.'

Hermione looked at him with wide eyes filling with angry tears before she ran off as quickly as she could. Wiping the tears away quickly so no one would see, Hermione knew she could not leave the ball as her mum would ask why. Hermione's mother was sure to Nial's side, she always did.

After such a horrible experience, Hermione decided to make the most of the lack of supervision and headed to the table of alcoholic drinks which the muggles in her books seemed to enjoy. Looking around quickly to make sure she wasn't seen, Hermione grabbed a glass of something glittery and ducked under the table, hidden by the white table cloth. Hermione had learned to entertain herself after all these years in the manor not allowed to see people and so had gained a slight disregard for the rules that, while she found healthy, was not enjoyed by the rest of her family. Hermione loved the thrill of doing things she wasn't supposed to, and a table full of forbidden substances was not to be missed. Especially after that friend making fiasco.

Sitting down cross legged, Hermione was about to try the drink when a sudden voice shocked her.

'I can see your knickers.'

Hermione let out a yelp before a hand clamped down on her mouth. A boy her age was staring back at her. The boy had black hair that for pure bloods was long, as it touched his ears; his eyes were a steely grey, lightened by the twinkle of mischief hidden in their depths. He had very aristocratic features despite his slightly chubby cheeks and Hermione could tell he was brought up to be taught that he was important. Hermione licked his hand and it was his turn to yelp as he snatched his hand back and glared at her, before they made eye contact and both began to laugh, quietly so they wouldn't be caught by adults nearby. Hermione adjusted her dress to go over her knees before asking the boy, 'what are you doing under here?'

'The same as you,' The boy gestured to a similar drink in his hand. 'You're Hermione Avery?' He asked, and when she nodded he scowled, 'so it's your fault that I have been dragged to this thing.'

Hermione was mildly offended, but after the previous encounter she held her tongue and instead decided to try a sip of the sparkly drink.

'EUGHH!' Hermione spat out the drink immediately, if this was what adults drank they could keep it. She looked over to see the boy laughing, and was extremely embarrassed that she had once again forgotten her etiquette lessons. Hopefully the boy wouldn't tell on her, but that drink really was awful.

Once the boy had finished laughing he looked over to Hermione and stated, 'I like you. You're very unpurebloody.'

'I don't think that's a word,' Hermione said, but smiled all the same. She was making a friend! Even if the boy was quite rude, at least he wasn't mean like that Daisy person. Hermione was also secretly pleased to be called 'unpurebloody' and wondered if she had met someone who felt the same as her about blood purity.

'So what's with the tear tracks on your face?' The boy asked, and while Hermione was embarrassed that he could tell she had been crying, she so desperately wanted to trust him and make a friend that she decided to tell him about her fight with the other children.

'Yeah, Daisy Parkinson is a complete cow and her brother is worse, I don't like any of them really. Your brother included, no offence.' The boy replied after she had finished her story, and Hermione did not take offence, she didn't like her brother right now either. 'But you must have met people like her before in France?'

Hermione blushed at this, 'I actually haven't ever met people my age before, except my brother. But I don't think he likes me very much,' Hermione left out that she'd never met people of any age to stick to her cover story. The boy's eyes grew large at this.

'So you've never had a friend?' He asked. When Hermione looked away embarrassed he continued. 'I haven't either.' Hermione turned back to him incredulously. 'That's the real reason I'm under here, I can't stand any of these people. The only one I like is my younger brother Reg. He hangs around with all of them though.' Sirius said 'them' as though it was a dirty word.

'Why don't you have any friends?' Hermione asked.

'Why don't you?' He shot back defensively.

'Hermione sighed, 'I always thought it was because I hadn't met anyone to be friends with, but maybe my mother is right. She thinks I don't act like a proper pure blood.'

The boy grinned, 'Well that's good cus my mum says the same thing about me!' Hermione beamed at him. 'We should be friends, and protect each other from the other children.' As he said this last sentence he wiggled his fingers in an overdramatic fashion that made Hermione laugh loudly.

Suddenly, the table cloth lifted slightly to reveal an old man peering at the two children. Hermione immediately hid the alcoholic drink in her hand behind her back, but the boy merely grinned at the man, who grinned back.

'Hey Uncle Alph.'

'Your mother is looking for you boy. It's time to go, and don't let her catch you under here.' The man disappeared and the boy turned to look at Hermione.

'Well, this is my cue to leave. I'll see you at the next one of these.' He made to leave but Hermione stopped him.

'Wait! What's your name?'

'Sirius Black,' Sirius replied with a smirk, and Hermione looked at him pityingly. 'What?' Sirius asked.

'I've met your mother.' Sirius laughed loudly at this and winked, before he ducked out from under the table and disappeared.

Hermione exited from under the table soon after, cheered up from the horrible start of the ball. Hermione had not realised how late it was, as only a few people remained in the room, saying goodbye to Hermione's mother. As they began to leave, Hermione sidled to the door in an attempt to escape from her mother. No such luck. One look froze Hermione in place and she could tell her brother had told on her already.

Later that night, Hermione lay in bed thinking about her day. She had made her first friend! Hermione even decided fighting with her brother's friends had been worth being told off by her mum, for if she hadn't she might not have met Sirius. She was so excited to see him again.

After their first meeting, they kept bumping into each other over the next year and a half. Hermione had not realised just how many social occasions one could attend, and began to understand why she was so often in the manor alone before her illness cleared. At every social gathering Sirius and Hermione could be seen huddled together in a corner, one or both of them usually laughing heartily. Most of the time they were either discussing Hogwarts (after they had both received their letters) or were laughing due to the game the two had made up to play. They would pick two people and each play one of them, making up what they were saying.

At one of the Malfoy events, Sirius had picked his own parents for the two to play and it had the two laughing manically.

'Ah yes, my wife, I do agree that Abraxas Malfoy looks like he's stepped in shit!' Sirius exclaimed in a very deep voice to emulate his father, and Hermione couldn't keep from laughing, more out of shock at the swear word than the phrase he was saying. They had both badly caught the giggles, and were unable to stop them as they did not notice a group of three boys march over.

When Hermione caught sight of the boys her laughter stopped, as did Sirius'. Hermione grabbed Sirius' hand, as she had taken to doing as they grew closer; Sirius found he did not mind it as neither child received much physical contact from their parents at home.

'Hey Herm,' Nial said, using a nickname he knew Hermione hated. Hermione did not know why but her brother greatly disliked Sirius, and ever since he and Hermione became close her brother had been more irritating towards her.

'Don't call me that Nial,' Hermione said, annoyed that her time with her friend was being taken away.

'What are you and Black doing anyway?' Nial asked, ignoring her previous statement.

Hermione went to answer her brother but was interrupted by Sirius. 'It's none of your business Avery,' he said with a glare, and Hermione knew the anger was due to her telling Sirius about Nial and his friends teasing her when they came over to the Avery manor. Hermione had not realised Sirius would be so angry when she told him, but she secretly liked that she had a friend that would stick up for her, and that someone had a temper worse than hers.

'What goes on with my little sister is always my business, Black.' Avery accentuated Sirius' last name as he directed his gaze to him.

'I'm only seven minutes younger than you!' Hermione cried.

Sirius and Nial both ignored Hermione as Sirius said, 'It's not your business if you're mean to her. Big brothers shouldn't do that.' At this, Avery's smirk dropped and he took a step towards Sirius.

'Watch what you say, Black, there's three of us and one of you.' At this, Hermione's temper flared and she shoved her brother backwards. What was she? A Cornish pixie? Not expecting it, Nial fell to the floor and looked up at his sister in shock. Clambering to his feet he glared at Hermione, 'you are in so much trouble.'

'RUN!' Hermione shouted as she grabbed Sirius and pulled him from the ballroom, bumping into people and causing them to spill their drinks as they ducked and weaved through the crowd. They ran until they could no longer hear the guests of the house, taking twists and turns, going up and down stairs until they were safe.

'Why did you do that?!' They both shouted at each other at the same time, once they had caught their breath.

'JINX!' Hermione exclaimed, and they both forgot their anger at each other as Sirius asked,

'What's Jinx?'

''You have to say it when you both say the same thing and then the person who said it last can't speak until you say their full name, I read it in a book,' Hermione explained.

'Wicked.'

'Hey that's speaking!' At this Sirius gave Hermione his best puppy dog eyes, they were very convincing and Hermione knew that the Jinx game was going to be rigged. Hermione huffed but relented, 'Sirius Orion Black, you may speak. But seriously, why did you get so angry at Nial? And oh my god! I pushed him!'

At that Sirius laughed, 'Did you see his face?'

Hermione smiled slightly at that, it was quite funny to see him look so shocked after all. 'We're going to be in so much trouble,' she continued, but she couldn't work up the enthusiasm to be scared of her mother, this wasn't the first time she and Sirius had gotten into trouble; it was the first time it had become physical though.

'If she kills you, come back as a ghost and I'll visit,' Sirius said with a wink and Hermione began to laugh again. 'Now onto a more serious topic, pun intended. We will be catching the Hogwarts Express in less than one week, and it you do not sit with me I will write to your mother and tell her it was you that accidentally caused the chandelier to drop at the Flint's wedding anniversary.'

'But that was you!' Hermione cried in outrage.

'I know,' Sirius grinned.

'If I don't get sorted into Slytherin you won't need to write home to my mum anyway, I'll already be dead by Nial,' Hermione said with a frown. Both had made it known to each other that while neither wanted to be in Slytherin, it was most likely they would be.

'As long as either both of us are or neither of us are, we'll be okay Mione,' Sirius said as he grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her back in the direction of the ballroom, using the nickname for the first time. Hermione liked it a lot better than Herms. 'I go second so if you're in Slytherin I'll think really Slytherin thoughts so we stay together.'

Hermione laughed, touched that Sirius would sacrifice himself to make sure they stayed together. 'Sirius? Promise we'll stay best friends forever?' Hermione asked him as they neared the ballroom.

'Obviously…. Herms,'

'I take it back.'

'Aw Herms I'm sorry!' Sirius made to wrap his arms around Hermione but she squealed and danced backwards. Unfortunately, her famous clumsiness caused her to trip on the corner of the rug and as she flailed, her hand knocked something. Fortunately, Sirius caught her, unfortunately, she had knocked Lady Malfoy and caused her to spill bright red wine all down her white dress. Sirius and Hermione froze as the Lady of the house turned to slowly look at the two eleven year olds.

'Is it time to run again?' Hermione whispered.


	2. Preparing for Hogwarts

**Okay, so here is chapter two! It was hard to write, mainly as I kept getting distracted by Game of Thrones GIFs. Don't expect a new chapter a day as I really don't have a schedule; this is just for fun for me. I considered not posting this chapter yet and making it a weekly update, so let me know if you would prefer that to a more random system. Anyway, review and enjoy!**

The next week was flying by for Hermione, and soon enough it was just three days until she would be boarding the Hogwarts Express. Today was the day Hermione would be going to Diagon Alley for the first time, and she had been nagging her brother for days to tell her all about it, and was it wonderful? And was the book shop big?

'Enough Hermione!' Nial snapped as they waited in the drawing room for their mother to come, so they could floo to Diagon Alley. 'You'll be there in less than five minutes, could you please just shut up for one second?'

Hermione huffed, but decided she'd better be quiet. Ever since the 'Malfoy Incident' as she like to call it, she had been in big trouble. Her mother had banned her and Sirius from being friends, and while Hermione protested, she knew that once she got on the Hogwarts Express she would be able to find him. However, it did mean that she and Sirius weren't allowed to meet up today. Still, Hermione would not let that dampen her spirits! Today she would be finally getting a wand! She would finally fit in with the world she was so desperately trying to catch up with since her illness nearly took it away from her.

'Alright Nial, Hermione, are you ready to go?' Hermione's mother asked as she swept into the drawing room. At Hermione and Nial's nod (Nial decidedly less enthusiastic) the Lady Avery called Nial forward and allowed him to disappear in the green flames. Hermione rushed forward and grabbed a handful, not at all scared despite it being her first time. She had after all watched her brother go countless times. If Nial could do it, how hard could it be? As Hermione shouted out her destination, she had a sudden flaring pain in her stomach and doubled over, eyes screwed shut from the pain.

'Hey, are you alright?' Hermione heard a voice as she fell into someone, who managed to catch her and steady her. Just as suddenly as the pain came, it disappeared once more. Hermione opened her eyes and looked up at the boy who had caught her. Looking at her in concern was a lanky boy, who could have been any age between ten and thirteen for all Hermione knew. He had brown hair and brown eyes, but his most defining feature was the circular glasses perched around his eyes. He looked kind and as she had never met him she assumed he must not be a pureblood, but Hermione was still very embarrassed at the way they met.

'Yeah,' she mumbled as she straightened herself. Pushing away the worry that her illness may be resurfacing, Hermione turned to face the boy fully. The doctor had after all told her that she would occasionally feel lingering symptoms; the disease was usually for life.

'My names James,' the boy introduced himself, 'do you know that boy over there? He seems to be glaring at us,' James continued as he gestured to behind Hermione.

Looking over, Hermione groaned as she caught sight of her brother standing outside of the shop opposite the floo entrance looking on angrily as the two interacted. When they made eye contact he gestured her over. 'That's my brother, Nial. I'm Hermione. Thank you for helping me but I'd better go,' she regretfully turned to walk away.

As she walked she heard James call after her, 'Any time! And tell your brother he looks like he kissed a toad with that look on his face!' Hermione stifled a giggle as she saw her brother's scowl deepen.

When Hermione walked over to her brother, she barely had time to take in what she was seeing. Diagon Alley was exactly how she had wanted it to be. The street was incredibly busy and there was magic happening in every nook and cranny. Hermione was finally starting to feel like a witch here, as opposed to the mundane every day of life at the manor. When Hermione caught sight of shaggy black hair her excitement peaked, maybe Sirius was here anyway! Her excitement was extremely short lived as when she got to her brother, he immediately began to berate her.

'Do you know who that was?' He demanded angrily. 'That was James Potter you were talking to!' Nial's voice dropped as he whispered to her, 'He's a blood traitor.'

'Oh,' Hermione replied. While she didn't believe her parents to the same extent Nial did, she had been brought up having the message to ignore all blood traitors drilled into her. Therefore, Hermione decided it would be best to just go along with her family for now. After all, Hogwarts was only in three days. Freedom was so close she could taste it, and if she had to pretend to be bigoted for a few days to get there, she would. They couldn't stop her once she got to Hogwarts, she reasoned to herself, no matter how hard her brother might try.

The day went by fairly quickly, and Hermione constantly kept her eyes peeled for her best friend. Slightly disheartened by having not seen him, while her brother bumped into a seemingly endless stream of people, they made their way into the last shop. Ollivander's. The shop was very small, and crammed to the roof with wand boxes, they balanced precariously on every available surface and Hermione prayed to merlin that she would not trip and cause the entire shop to fall down.

'Sirius!' Hermione exclaimed, spotting Sirius stood to the right of the door waiting for Ollivander to bring a wand over to him. He was dressed in wizarding robes that accentuated how affluent his family was, however his slightly too long hair pushed back from his face showed his true personality.

'Hey Mione, fancy seeing you here!' Sirius said with a smirk. They had of course discussed going to Diagon Alley and so Sirius knew what day Hermione would be going, and hoped he would be able to see her despite the ban her mother had placed on him. Sirius was quite proud; it was the first time someone outside his family had deemed him a troublemaker.

Only the hand on Hermione's shoulder stopped her going over to embrace her best friend. She was happy that she could at least witness Sirius getting his wand, and maybe he would stick around to watch her too. As Sirius waved the next wand given to him, Hermione was forced to duck as wand boxes flew across the shop at an alarming speed. Nial, however, was not so quick with his reflexes and took several boxes to the head. Hermione snorted and turned in time to see Sirius wink at her. The next wand seemed to be the one for Sirius, as when he held onto it he immediately felt warmth shoot up his arm and throughout his whole body. The curious thing about Sirius finding his wand was that Hermione was enveloped in the same warmth, and they both smiled at each other as Sirius paid. Sirius had come into the shop alone and so dawdled after purchasing his wand, no doubt so that he could wait for Hermione. Luckily for them, Hermione's mother was too preoccupied with getting Nial sorted with his wand that she did not notice Sirius sidle up to Hermione.

'That was incredible,' Sirius whispered.

Hermione nodded in agreement, 'I wonder why I felt the warmth too.'

'Did you?' Sirius asked, 'I was talking about your brother getting hit in the face, but if you felt the effects of my wand too that's cool I guess.' Hermione rolled her eyes at him, but couldn't help but smile at his weird humour.

'Hermione,' Lady Avery called, and it was Sirius' turn to roll his eyes.

'I'll wait and watch you,' he reassured her as she made her way nervously to the old wand maker. What if she didn't get a wand? What if she wasn't actually a witch? She couldn't imagine not being allowed to go to Hogwarts with Sirius. Books weren't enough for her anymore, now that she had tasted her new life.

Hermione's fears only grew as over half an hour and fifteen wands came and went.

'Exciting, Exciting!' Ollivander called from the back room; Hermione did not agree. The only thing stopping her from crying was the reassuring looks Sirius sent her. Nial had long since wandered off and Hermione's mother looked like she wished she could do the same.

Twenty long minutes later, Ollivander came out with yet another wand, looking even more excited that normal and casting knowing looks over to the corner where Sirius stood observing. Looking between them, Hermione wandered what Sirius had to do with her wand. Shaking the thought away, she went to grip the wand with little faith that it would be hers. As soon as Hermione took hold of the wand however, she knew that it was meant for her. The wand practically quivered in her hand, and the same warmth from earlier spread through her.

'Ah yes,' Ollivander said in a pensive voice. 'This is most certainly the wand for you. I should have guessed from the moment young Mr. Black gained his wand, but it is so rare.'

'What's rare, Sir?' Hermione questioned, shooting a confused look to Sirius who just shrugged and returned his attention to Mr. Ollivander.

'The dragon that gave its heart string to the wand you currently hold, Miss Avery, gave just one other. That heart string is in Mr. Black's wand. While there is no specific proof, it is widely known among wand makers that people with wands connected such as yours are, are also connected. You and Mr. Black have a long relationship ahead of you. Let us hope it is a smooth one.'

Hermione beamed at this and went to turn towards Sirius, however before she could she was roughly pulled from the shop, her mother uttering 'what complete nonsense' under her breath.

Hermione faintly heard Sirius calling her name, but before Hermione could so much as blink, she was being pushed towards the floo port and had no choice but to glumly proclaim 'Avery Manor' before she was whisked back to the dreary place she could not bring herself to call home, wishing she was back with her friend.

'Go to your room Hermione,' her mother said as she walked out of the room, and Hermione knew her mother was annoyed at what the wand maker had said. Hermione herself was thrilled. Sirius would always be her best friend! She hadn't met many people but she just knew that Sirius and her were supposed to be friends, and now her wand proved it! Hermione made her way to her room and let out a squeal as she flopped onto the bed. September first could not come fast enough!

Soon enough, the big day came. Hermione was up and dressed in the dress her mother had deemed appropriate for a pureblood on a long train ride before Tiny had time to wake her, she was far too excited, but also terrified.

'Miss should have stayed in bed and tried to sleep,' Tiny reprimanded as she entered Hermione's room and walked over to her trunk.

'Sorry Tiny, I'm just so excited. I don't know how Nial has managed to sleep for so long!' Hermione exclaimed as she brushed through her knotted hair. Once Tiny had taken her trunk downstairs, she brought Hermione breakfast in her room as a treat on her last day in the manor. Tiny was about to leave once more when Hermione stopped her. 'Tiny wait, will you stay with me this morning.'

Tiny turned to look at Hermione with big eyes, 'Tiny would love to Miss.'

As Hermione ate, Tiny sat with her, and they both cherished their final moments together before Hermione would be gone for the first time in her life. 'I'm really going to miss you Tiny.'

'Tiny will miss Hermione as well,' Tiny replied.

'I wanted to say thank you, for everything. You've always been there for me, you helped influence the person I am today. Tiny, you're truly a member of my family.'

'Tiny thinks of Miss as family as well,' Tiny said with tears in her eyes. Hermione embraced Tiny quickly before her brother burst into her room.

'Hermione come on, stop playing with the elf. It's time to go to Hogwarts!' Nial said, and Hermione could tell that he was just as excited as she was, he was just better at hiding it. Throwing one last sad smile towards Tiny, Hermione raced her brother through the manor to the front door, where she was meeting her parents to apparate to platform nine and three quarters.

'Now, once we get there, I want your absolute best behaviour. There will be a lot of influential people at the platform and we have a reputation to uphold.' Hermione's father said sternly, looking solely at Hermione.

Hermione and Nial chorused a 'Yes father' and then Hermione felt the tug at her navel that she recognised as the feeling one gained when apparating. When the unpleasant feeling left Hermione she opened her eyes and was hit with both the sights and sounds of the Hogwarts express and the platform. The impressive scarlet train was the main feature, and Hermione admired its grandeur before her father took her hand and led her through the throngs of people to a train door. One of the Avery house elves took over and grabbed Hermione and Nial's trunks before dragging them on board to an empty compartment.

'Now Nial,' Hermione's father addressed her brother, 'you are the man of the family once you step onto that train, and I expect you to act as such. You will look after your sister and work hard. I want only good things heard about both of you.' At this, he turned to Hermione. 'Hermione, please just behave; and do as your brother says.'

'Yes dad,' Hermione replied, with her fingers crossed behind her back. At this, Hermione hugged both her mother and father briefly before bounding onto the train, followed closely by her brother. Both were too excited to fully realise the fact that they would be leaving home, and would not see their parents for many months. Just as Hermione was about to enter the compartment where her stuff had been left by their house elf, her brother stopped her.

'Hermione, where are you going?' He asked, and Hermione looked at him confusedly.

'To sit down?' She questioned.

'I'm sitting in there with my friends,' Nial continued, 'There's no room for you. You'll have to go somewhere else. We can catch up in the Slytherin common room this evening yeah?'

Hermione bit her lip but nodded, she didn't like Nial's friends anyway, but it would have been nice to have the comfort of her brother on the way to Hogwarts. Hermione had no idea where Sirius might be and was scared that he might have changed his mind on sitting with her on the train.

'Bye Nial,' she whispered before heading right, down the train and past many full carriages, none containing her best friend.

An older student pushed past Hermione with her trunk, knocking her to the ground. She made a loud 'oomf' as she hit the floor, and wondered whether she should just stay there for the rest of the trip. However, before her negative thoughts could spiral, a hand appeared in front of her face.

'We have to stop meeting like this,' a voice said as she grabbed the hand to be pulled up.

'James!' Hermione cried, so relieved to see a familiar face. 'Thank merlin you found me. My brother kicked me out of his carriage and I can't find my best friend and I keep getting trampled!'

James laughed at Hermione's concerned rambling, 'Don't worry. I don't have a carriage either, why don't I help you look for your friend?'

'Thanks James,' Hermione replied in relief, 'He has black hair and acts like he's really important.' James laughed once more.

'That doesn't narrow it down by much.'

Fifteen minutes of searching and chatting later and Hermione let out an excited cry.

'Sirius!'

'Hermione, there you are! I thought you must have decided to sit with your brother! I thought I'd be stuck by myself,' Sirius replied as he stood from his seat in an empty compartment. The last compartment of the train to be exact. Of course it would be the last one.

Hermione snorted as she entered the compartment and hugged Sirius, James following in after with a cocky grin as he shut the door behind him.

'As if Nial would let me sit with him,' Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

'Ah yes, frog face,' James inserted and both Sirius and Hermione laughed.

'Sirius, this is James. James this is Sirius.' Hermione made the introduction. 'He's been helping me find you.'

'More like she keeps falling over around me and now I'm stuck with her,' James added to Sirius, who laughed.

'Yeah, Mione has a bad habit of doing that. She once fell into a statue, which proceeded to fall on the band playing at Edward Parkinson's birthday ball. They had to end the function early.'

'I didn't see you complaining when we got to go home early,' Hermione said with a huff as she sat down. 'Sirius, guess what? James is a blood traitor!'

'Hey!' James exclaimed, looking very angrily at Hermione.

'No James, it's a good thing,' Sirius explained with a grin. 'Me and Hermione are what is known as 'unpurebloody' and being a blood traitor means you get to join the club!'

'I don't think that's the official term but yeah,' Hermione added, hoping James wasn't too offended by what she thought was a good thing.

'Oh,' James replied, calming down slightly. 'Are you both pureblood then?'

Hermione and Sirius nodded. 'Both of our mums are pureblood socialites, and we've been keeping each other sane at all the events.' Sirius explained.

'Yeah, and neither of us could stand the others.' Hermione said, thinking fondly of her first meeting with Sirius.

At that moment, a girl with bright red hair falling to her waist stuck her hair into the carriage, 'Excuse me? Everywhere is full and me and Sev have nowhere to go. Do you mind if we sit with you?' The girl directed this towards Hermione, who nodded with a smile at the girl. 'Great, thanks so much!' She said as she pushed the door further open and entered. Behind her followed a boy that Hermione guessed must be 'Sev'. Sev had greasy black hair that fell to his neck, pushed behind his ears. He had a hooked nose and he seemed to be glaring at her and her friends. The clothes he had on were oversized and didn't appear clean. Hermione couldn't help but crinkle her nose slightly. She didn't mean to be judgemental, but she could never imagine her mother allowing her to go anywhere dressed like him.

As the girl sat down she stuck her hand out to Hermione, who shook it as the girl said, 'I'm Lily, and this is my best friend Severus.'

Hermione smiled as she replied, she liked this girl already. Lily radiated warmth. 'I'm Hermione.' She then gestured to James and Sirius. 'That's Sirius, my best friend. And that's James, he's also my friend.' James laughed at the poor explanation of himself and Sirius.

'Aw thanks Mione.' He said, adopting Sirius' nickname for her. An awkward silence filled the compartment before James tried to diffuse the tension.

'So anyway,' he continued to Hermione and Sirius, 'If you're 'unpurebloody' does that mean you don't want to be in Slytherin?'

Sirius frowned at that, 'Both of our families have always been in Slytherin so that's probably where we will be.'

'Blimey,' James replied, 'and I thought you guys were alright.' Hermione giggled at this and Sirius jokingly punched James in the arm.

'What about you James?' Hermione asked, and she could tell Lily and Severus were listening in to their conversation.

James stood up dramatically and placed his hand over his heart. 'Gryffindor! Where dwell the brave at heart!' He declared, before winking at Lily and sitting back down. None of them missed the derivative snort that came from Severus.

'What's wrong with Gryffindor?' Hermione asked him, confused at why someone would react like that outside of the Pureblood circle that he was evidently not part of, otherwise she would have recognised him.

Severus replied, 'Nothing, if you're all brawns and no brains.'

'Better than neither, like you,' Sirius retorted, annoyed that this stranger had come in and insulted the place him and Hermione had dreamed of going to.

'I've heard about your family, Black,' Severus sneered. He turned to James and Hermione, 'trust me, he's a lost cause.'

Hermione stood up at this, her temper beginning to flare. 'He didn't do anything! You came in here and started all of this! Snivelling in the corner and waiting for your opportunity to be mean to us!' Hermione did not want to alienate herself from Lily, but her notorious defensive streak stopped her from being able to hold her tongue.

'Yeah, Snivellus,' James joined in as Sirius tugged on Hermione's hand to get her to sit down again. All three glared at Severus.

'Come one Sev, let's go,' Lily said, with an indignant huff and a glare towards James as she stormed out of the compartment, Severus leaving behind her and slamming the compartment door.

'Well that went well,' Sirius remarked as he put his arm around Hermione. 'You okay?'

'The nerve of some people,' Hermione replied angrily. 'It's like he actually thought we would be like 'oh yeah sure Sirius is awful, let's all skip off together',' Hermione rolled her eyes. 'I'm gonna go change into my school robes. You two should as well while I'm away.'

'Yes mam,' James said, with a mock salute that caused the frown on Hermione's face to lift slightly.

Once Hermione had got her robes from her brother's compartment (they all ignored her which suited Hermione fine) and changed, she began to make her way back to her compartment. However, on the way she paused at the sight of a boy sitting by himself in the train hallway. The boy was obviously a first year from the nervous expression on his face, and he was already dressed in his Hogwarts robes like Hermione herself. The boy had sandy blonde hair and was very thin, with a few cuts on his face and hands. He had angular features, and his hair flopped over his forehead but left his bright green eyes free, which were definitely his most defining feature. Hermione couldn't imagine sitting by herself, especially when he must be so nervous about getting to the castle, so she immediately decided to try and befriend him.

'Excuse me?' She called, and when he looked up she continued. 'My names Hermione.'

The boy looked slightly confused but stood and introduced himself, 'My names Remus, Remus Lupin.'

'I noticed you were by yourself, and I wondered if you wanted to come and sit with my friends and me? You're a first year too right?'

The smile that Remus gave Hermione instantly assured her that she'd done the right thing. He looked incredibly relieved. 'I'd love to. And yeah, all the compartments had people in them and I didn't want to intrude on anyone.'

'I know the feeling,' Hermione replied. 'My brother wouldn't let me sit in his compartment with him. If I didn't already know Sirius, I would have been joining you on the floor!' At this Remus laughed slightly. When they reached the compartment Hermione dramatically swept open the compartment door, only to scream and shut it again. She turned to Remus, 'they usually wear more clothes.' At this, Remus' laughter increased and soon Hermione was joining him, both of them with tears in their eyes at the sight of Sirius and James in various stages of undress. A few minutes later a very pink faced Sirius opened the door and let Hermione and Remus finally enter the compartment.

Hermione giggled once more, 'I'm sorry Siri, I didn't think that you two would still be changing. But I brought a friend, look!' Hermione gestured to where Remus Lupin was awkwardly standing in the entrance.

'Er, Hi,' Remus mumbled, his nerves coming back again.

'James and Sirius, this is Remus. Remus, this is James and Sirius!' Hermione introduced, hoping to make things less awkward.

'Let's hope he's better than the last lot we had in here,' Sirius replied before turning to Remus. 'So, Remus, what are your views on the Hogwarts houses?'

Remus shrugged as he took a seat next to James and opposite Hermione. 'I don't really mind. I just want to be placed where I belong, but I can't really see that being in Slytherin. I really like reading, so maybe Ravenclaw.' Sirius and James seemed satisfied with Remus' answer.

'You like reading?' Hermione asked excitedly. 'What sort of books do you like?'

'Mainly books on Defence against the Dark Arts and charms and stuff, but I do read Fiction sometimes too.' Remus replied.

Hermione's smile had initially fallen at the thought of textbooks, but at the mention of her sort of books her smile came back. 'Oh that's great. I don't like all those textbooks myself, I'd rather learn from a real teacher. But I love reading Fiction! I suppose if I'm going to beat my brother in all of his exams I'll have to get into the textbooks though, maybe you can study with me!' Remus smiled and nodded, unable to believe that someone wanted to continue being his friend. Maybe Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad after all.

The four first years soon realised that they all shared a love of causing mischief; everyone was surprised by this trait in Remus due to his shy nature, but were convinced after a story he told them involving his cousin, a spider and a bought of accidental magic used to his advantage. The quartet spent the rest of the journey sharing stories and getting to know each other, their excitement growing until they felt the Hogwarts express begin to slow down.

'We're nearly here!' Hermione squealed, bouncing her legs up and down as she leaned across Sirius to peer out of the compartment window. Unfortunately, it was too dark for Hermione to see much.

All four children eagerly scrambled from the train when it eventually pulled in at Hogsmeade Station, leaving their bags behind as instructed by a prefect that passed their compartment earlier. Hearing a booming voice call for all first years, they headed away from the rest of their students and over to a man taller than any Hermione had ever seen before.

'He must be half giant,' Sirius whispered to her, and Hermione merely nodded, her nerves beginning to get the best of her as she reached out to hold Sirius' hand. They were lead over to the boats, that thankfully allowed four people to fit, so none of the group were forced to sit somewhere else. Hermione briefly waved at her brother, however he did not see as he and his group of four friends were too busy arguing over which one had to be in the boat with the chubby boy sat by himself. Hermione rolled her eyes.

Once everyone was settled the boats began to move, and James made a big show of pretending to nearly fall out, making everyone in the surrounding boats laugh. The laughter died out, however, when the boats made their way around a bend and the Hogwarts Castle in its entirety came into view. It was the most magnificent view Hermione had ever had, the castle was beautiful, and ten times bigger than the Avery Manor. Hermione couldn't believe that this would be her home. She squeezed Sirius' hand and he turned to her with wide eyes; she knew he was thinking the same thing she was.

All they had to do now was get through the sorting. Hermione had accepted her fate as a Slytherin, and selfishly hoped that Sirius would be sorted there along with her. Hermione didn't think she could deal with Nial's friends and Daisy Parkinson on her own. Maybe they'd be sorted into Hufflepuff and Hermione and her brother would become close like they used to be. Somehow, Hermione doubted it very much.


	3. The sorting

**So here's chapter three. I'm really enjoying writing this story, it's a great escape from the stress of moving. My parents are going abroad and all our furniture is now gone, I feel like a squatter. I got a tattoo yesterday, and I have a confession to make about it! It's a rune and everyone thinks I got it because I like the message, which is true, but the other reason I got it is because Sirius Black has the same one…. The obsession is real. In other news, I also have a community, you can find the link on my profile. Its full of all my favourite stories, and there's a lot of Sirius/Hermione action so go check it out! The reviews have been so lovely so thank you for those! Feel free to leave more, it's so encouraging. After this chapter, the time is going to jump a bit more, focusing on the important scenes instead of just rambling on about them doing homework etc. I hope that's okay. Anywayyyy, enjoy!**

While waiting in the entrance hall with all the other first years, Hermione looked around. There was only around forty students or so, for some reason Hermione had always assumed there would be hundreds of them. Despite the small numbers, Hermione was overwhelmed; after all, she had never really been around people before, and couldn't believe that these would all be her class mates for the next seven years.

Pushing the feeling to the side, Hermione decided to focus on the beauty surrounding her. Hogwarts truly felt like a castle, with ornate decorations climbing the walls and portraits of long forgotten people waving and smiling down at them all. Despite the grandeur, there was an unmissable feeling of content and homeliness and Hermione was thrilled at the thought of her time here.

Just as Hermione began to lose herself in her thoughts, she felt Sirius' hand in hers tense and when she turned to look at him she could practically feel the nerves rolling off of him. Hermione instantly knew it was due to the sorting that was about to occur.

At that moment, a stern looking woman entered the hall way and addressed the students.

'My name is Professor McGonagall, and I am both the Deputy headmistress and head of Gryffindor house. There are four houses at Hogwarts: Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. While you attend Hogwarts your house will be like your family.' Hermione gripped Sirius more tightly at this. 'Your achievements will earn you points and any misbehaviour will lose you them. Now, if you would all follow me the sorting will now commence.'

Hermione, with Sirius on one side and Remus on the other, followed behind James to the great hall. As they walked they could feel the eyes of all the older students on them, one part curious and one part bored and hungry. Hermione couldn't bear to think about food right now, her stomach was in complete knots.

'Look at the ceiling,' Sirius whispered to her. When Hermione looked up she could clearly see the nights' sky, thousands of stars twinkling, the Scottish sky unpolluted by light like the city was and so making the view the clearest Hermione had ever seen. Hermione gasped at the sight, despite knowing it was going to be there.

'It's bewitched,' she whispered back to Sirius, 'Dad told me. Isn't it beautiful?'

Sirius nodded, as they reached the front of the great hall and stood in a gaggle facing both Professor McGonagall and a stool with an old, frayed hat perched on top. Hermione nearly jumped out of her skin when it started singing.

After the hat was finished, it was time for the children to be sorted. Oh how Hermione wished she wasn't first, but with a last name beginning with A it was somewhat of a curse.

'Hermione Avery,' McGonagall called in her Scottish accent, and Hermione swallowed hard before stumbling her way up to the stool. As Hermione sat down, she could see the eyes of the entire school staring at her, and wished with anything that the hat would just get on with it. Of course, with Hermione's luck this would not be the case.

'Hermione Avery,' Hermione heard the sneering voice of the sorting hat reverberating within her head. 'Now this is a challenging sorting, it's been a while since I've had one of those.' Hermione gulped. 'The name Avery has been in this school for as long as it has been open, and never once have they gone anywhere other than Slytherin. There is no doubt that you would be feared and admired if you went there, but I see in your heart that that is not what you crave.' Hermione nodded her head furiously, hoping that this meant the hat would not put her in Slytherin, but also scared of the consequences if she were not placed there. 'No, you wish for friendship,' the hat said, as if the word friendship was dirty. 'If you went to Ravenclaw you could be unstoppable, you certainly have the natural intelligence, however you lack the drive many Ravenclaws possess.' Hermione huffed at that, she had plenty of drive, she just focused it on certain areas other than homework. The hat was silent for what felt like an eternity to Hermione, and to the rest of the school. Never had a sorting taken longer than ten minutes before, and they were all very hungry. Everyone assumed she would go to Slytherin and so were wondering what was taking so long. Sirius especially was getting nervous, he just wanted his best friend to stay with him and knew that if she went to Slytherin he would do anything to follow, despite the thought of going there making him feel ill.

'You will achieve great things Miss Avery,' the hat finally said, and the whole hall gasped as the hat had said this out loud. The hat had never before voiced its thoughts about an individual out loud and everyone wondered why he had chosen to with Hermione.

'GRYFFINDOR,' the hat shouted and the hall stayed deadly silent, shocked that an Avery was not going into Slytherin. While Hermione had originally beamed when the hat first told her she would get to be in her dream house, the deathly silence soon made her smile drop and she simply stood in front of the other students, unsure of what to do. She looked over to the other first years and flinched at the sight of her brother. He looked shell shocked, unable to comprehend what had happened. His parents were going to kill her. Hermione's gaze snapped away from her brother when she heard someone clapping, and landed on Sirius Black. Hermione had never seen a smile so large on the face of her best friend before, and as he clapped and started whooping, first James and then the entire Gryffindor table began to join in. Soon, there was thunderous applause as the Gryffindor's relished in the opportunity to annoy their house rivals, the Slytherins, by taking an alumnus from them. Hermione blushed and ran down the stairs to the end of the Gryffindor table, unable to believe her dreams had come true. When she sat down, her hand was immediately shaken by an older boy with red hair and a mischievous expression.

'Hi, I'm Fabian.' Fabian introduced himself, and Hermione couldn't help her smile as Fabian was pushed to the side, and a boy completely identical to him said,

'And I'm Gideon, the better looking of the two.'

Hermione was about to reply when she heard her brother's name being called. She quickly turned to face the sorting hat. As soon as her brother sat down, the hat called out 'SLYTHERIN,' and Hermione was a little bit disappointed, but not at all shocked as her brother walked with swagger towards the table that he considered his birth right.

Hermione didn't have time to dwell on this, however, as she soon heard Professor McGonagall call out 'Sirius Black.'

Hermione could see how nervous Sirius was, and she herself was nearly as bad. Hermione couldn't imagine going through her Hogwarts years without Sirius with her. Luckily for them both, Sirius' sorting went a lot quicker than Hermione's, and after just two minutes the hat called 'GRYFFINDOR.'

Hermione would not let the silence that followed her sorting occur for Sirius, despite his sorting being just as shocking as her own. Therefore, she immediately stood from the table and began to clap and cheer, hearing Fabian and Gideon join her instantly. When Sirius reached the table Hermione let out a squeal and flung herself at him, hugging him just as tightly as he was her. Hermione looked up when she heard a cough come from Professor McGonagall only to realise the entire hall was waiting for her and Sirius to sit down before the sorting to continue. Both Sirius and Hermione blushed and sat down as they heard a laugh come from where James was still stood at the front of the hall.

Slowly, the sorting continued. Hermione watched as two girls joined her in Gryffindor house; Lily Evans and Mary MacDonald. James and Remus also joined Gryffindor much to her delight, along with a boy they had not met, called Peter Pettigrew. Hermione always made an effort not to judge but he looked pretty weird. His eyes were too small for his very round face, and were constantly darting around the hall as if looking for an escape. Hermione assumed he must not have wanted to be sorted into Gryffindor.

Hermione was pleased that Lily had been sorted into Gryffindor as, despite getting off on the wrong foot, Hermione really did want to make friends with her. Mary MacDonald seemed really nice, as she immediately introduced herself to the two girls when she sat down and turned out to be very chatty. Mary had blonde curly hair that fell to her waist and had deep set green eyes, and was quite chubby but it seemed to suit her features. Overall Hermione was thrilled with her new housemates. It was no surprise to Hermione when Nail's best friends, Miles and Theon, joined him in Slytherin along with Daisy Parkinson and a few other children Hermione had been teased by at pureblood functions. Hermione was slightly surprised when Severus Snape joined them as he wasn't a pureblood, and could see the disappointment in Lily's face. However, Hermione couldn't help be slightly relieved that at least the mean boy wasn't sorted into Gryffindor.

Soon the sorting was over and the headmaster had sat down from doing his announcements for the year. Hermione's eyes bulged when she saw the amount of food that appeared on the table.

'The house elves here are amazing,' she thought to herself, feeling a pang of homesickness for her house elf, Tiny.

Hermione was pulled out of her thoughts by James. 'I can't believe we all made it!' he exclaimed, and Hermione smiled at him, the realisation that all of her friends were in one place hitting her at that moment. She was actually at Hogwarts with Sirius! And she was a Gryffindor!

'We need to celebrate with something big,' Hermione said out loud, remembering a conversation she and Sirius had had about all the things they would do if they were in a house together.

Sirius evidently remembered this conversation as well as his eyes lit up, 'Yeah, me and Mione always said we would pull a prank if we got sorted together.'

Remus and James' eyes glinted as they both leant forwards, showing their interest in joining in.

At that moment they heard a small voice say 'I-I like pranks.' They turned to look at the owner of the voice and saw Peter listening in to their conversation. Hermione looked briefly over to Mary and Lily and saw them deep in their own conversation.

'Have you ever pulled one?' James asked Peter sceptically.

'N-No, but kids always used to pull them on me,' Peter replied in a squeak.

Hermione couldn't help feeling bad for him when he said this, and decided to throw him a bone.

'We'd love for you to help Peter,' she said with an encouraging smile while Sirius looked at her incredulously. Peter smiled timidly at her. 'Anyway,' Hermione continued, 'I think we should do something to show everyone that we're here.' Sirius' expression turned excited at this.

'Like what?' Remus asked.

'We could set off fireworks!' Sirius exclaimed, enjoying the idea of starting with a bang.

The four friends discussed the details of their idea for the rest of the meal in excitement, Peter not including any of his own ideas. Hermione couldn't blame him for wanting to be a part of their already forming group of friends, but she did wish he would at least make an effort.

Soon, everyone was stuffed to the brim with delicious Hogwarts food and definitely ready for bed after such a long and stressful day. They followed behind their house prefect, Hermione briefly smiling at Nial, who gave her a half grimace before turning away.

'Don't worry about Nial,' Sirius said, having witnessed the exchange. 'He's just sad that I get you and he doesn't.'

'You're so silly Sirius,' Hermione replied with a laugh. 'He's just thinking of how best to phrase his letter to mum so that I get in as much trouble as possible.'

'Me and James will beat him up, won't we James?' Sirius said in a defensive yet teasing tone.

'Yeah, definitely,' James replied despite having not heard the rest of the conversation, before whispering to Sirius, 'Who are we beating up?'

Hermione rolled her eyes but linked her arms with both of the boys as they made their way up the seemingly endless stairs they would have to take for the next seven years.

Remus caught up with the three, panting. 'I'm not going to survive Hogwarts. There's too many stairs I just can't do it.'

'We could learn to apparate?' Hermione asked, agreeing with Remus that the amount of exercise they were going to receive just getting around was very excessive.

'You can't,' Remus replied, 'It's impossible to apparate within Hogwarts. Hermione huffed in annoyance, it was like they wanted to kill her.

James collapsed to the floor dramatically, causing a third year to trip over him. 'Go on without me!' he cried loudly, 'I'm not going to make it!' Hermione, Sirius and Remus burst out laughing, while Peter looked anxiously at James not understanding that it was a joke.

'Oh honestly,' Lily said, as she passed the group with Mary, who was laughing quietly.

James stood up after they had passed and turned to look at Sirius, 'I don't think she likes me.'

'That'll be thanks to the whole 'Snivellus' thing I recon,' Sirius answered James with a shrug.

'Honestly, if she's mad at you for that she should be mad at Snape for starting it in the first place. But I saw her run and hug him as we left the hall. It's so hypocritical. Don't worry James, I'll try and sort things out.' Hermione said determinedly.

They soon reached a portrait of a fat lady wearing a pink dress, and were told that the password was nox.

Hermione gasped when she entered the common room. It was the complete opposite of what she was used to. While the Avery manor was cold, ornate and pristine, the Gryffindor common room was cosy, warm and slightly chaotic. There were sofas and chairs surrounding multiple fire places, with desks set up for studying with friends. The entire colour scheme was red, and Hermione and Sirius shared excited grins.

Hermione hugged all four boys, saying goodnight before she eagerly headed to her dorm room, excited to get to know her new roommates before they all fell asleep.

Once all three girls had got ready and clambered into their beds, there was an awkward silence before Lily filled it with a question for Hermione.

'Hermione? Why was everyone staring at you and Sirius all through dinner?' She asked.

Hermione was slightly shocked as she hadn't noticed anyone staring, but then again she'd been so absorbed in her happiness that she probably wouldn't have noticed a bludger hitting her.

'I'm not really sure Lily,' Hermione replied honestly. 'Maybe it's because everyone thought we'd be in Slytherin.'

'Oh,' Lily replied, 'I don't see how they could have known that, they've never met either of you before.'

Mary answered Lily this time. 'Lily, me and Hermione, and also Sirius, come from pureblood families. That means that there's no muggle blood in our family for as long as people can remember.'

'Okay,' Lily said, unsure about the relevance of this.

'While for me that isn't a big deal, Hermione and Sirius come from what's known as the Sacred Twenty-Eight. That basically makes them a kind of royalty in the wizarding world.'

'So Hermione is like Princess Diana?' Lily asked, and Hermione and Mary looked at her quizzically. 'She's the daughter of the Queen, and everyone loves her.'

'Oh right,' Mary laughed. 'I guess so, except not that many people actually like the Sacred Twenty-Eight. No offence Hermione.'

'None taken,' Hermione replied, she had known this for a while.

'Why do people not like you Hermione?' Lily questioned.

'Well, I hope they do like me. It's more that people don't like my family, and since they don't know me they kind of assume I'm like the rest of them.'

'What do you mean?'

'Most purebloods, especially the older families, believe that muggles and muggle-borns are less than we are. That they must have stolen their magic or something.' Hermione said with a grimace. 'I don't believe those things, and neither does Sirius, but we were both brought up being taught those values. My brother Nial does believe in it though.'

Mary took over here, 'Pretty much everyone from Hermione and Sirius' families, along with the majority of the other members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, have always been sorted into Slytherin. Salazar Slytherin himself wanted to ban Muggle Borns from going to Hogwarts, so Slytherin has quite a bad reputation. Hermione and Sirius not being sorted there is a very big deal. It'll most likely be in the Daily Prophet.'

'Oh God,' Hermione groaned at this. 'I just really hope I don't get disowned. My brother could barely look at me after the feast.'

'Could they really do that?' Lily asked, shocked at how extreme the consequences were for something so seemingly small.

'Yeah,' Hermione replied. 'Mum will also hate that I'm in the same house as Sirius. We're banned from being friends.'

Mary looked weirdly at Hermione when she said this, 'Why? You're both Purebloods.'

'Well you see,' Hermione started with a blush. 'Me and Sirius sometimes get into a bit of trouble. Completely accidental of course,' Lily laughed at this. 'And Sirius and my brother really don't get on. Nial is the perfect child to my mum, so if he doesn't like Sirius he must be the devil reincarnated.'

'Your brother doesn't seem very nice,' Mary commented.

'He can be nice sometimes. When I was younger I would always chase him around the house, trying to make him play with me. But he just never liked me,' Hermione confessed.

'I thought you lived in France?' Mary asked.

Hermione froze, realising her mistake. 'Erm, yeah. I meant when I would come back to visit.'

'Oh right.'

Phew.

'So you and Sirius are really close then?' Lily asked, changing the topic to Hermione's relief.

'Yeah, we met a year and a half ago when I came back from France. All of my brother's friends were mean and so I hid under a table. Sirius was already there hiding and we agreed to rescue each other.'

Mary and Lily laughed at this before Lily asked in a quiet voice, 'So, you guys don't think I'm below you because my parents are muggles?'

'Of course not!' Mary exclaimed while Hermione shook her head vehemently.

'Severus explained before we came that people might be mean to me,' Lily explained. 'I really like you guys and I don't want you to not be friends with me.'

'We'll defend you Lily don't worry,' Hermione stated, feeling her protective side already starting to come out. 'The only people that would give you stick are probably Slytherins anyway, and Severus will defend you right?'

'Yeah definitely,' Lily said, thinking fondly of her best friend.

'Speaking of,' Hermione continued. 'James thinks you don't like him because of what he said about Severus.'

'That's because I don't,' Lily replied, and Hermione could tell she was stubborn.

'Oh come on Lily, you have to admit that Snape was being horrible first. James was just defending me and Sirius.'

'It was completely unnecessary though,' Lily refused to back down.

'Maybe it was, but wouldn't you have done the same thing?' Hermione tried.

'I don't think so,' Lily replied.

'Fine,' Hermione sighed. 'At least try to have a fresh start, we're all stuck with each other for seven years now.'

Lily conceded, 'Okay, I will as long as he leaves Severus alone from now on.'

'I'm sure he will,' Hermione lied.

The next morning, an overly excited Hermione bound down the stairs with Lily and Mary to meet the boys for breakfast. As soon as they entered the great hall however, Hermione was yanked to the side, nearly falling over.

'Hey,' Sirius shouted, about to get involved. Once Hermione saw that it her brother, however, she gestured to Sirius to go on to the table. When Sirius didn't move Hermione pleaded.

'Please Sirius, save me a seat at the table.' Sirius nodded once, his expression tense, and headed to the Gryffindor table.

'What do you want Nial?' Hermione asked, resigned to the upcoming fight she knew would take place due to the anger on Nial's face.

'Why the hell did you go to Gryffindor?' He asked in an angry whisper.

'I didn't choose it Nial. Unless you didn't notice, there was a rather large hat on my head that had the final say.' Hermione hissed back. Nial stared back at her and Hermione realised that she had read his emotions wrong. He wasn't angry, he was upset.

'I thought we were going to go through Hogwarts together,' He said, and Hermione was shocked that he had actually wanted that.

'Oh Nial,' Hermione said. 'I'm sad about that too.' And Hermione truly was. 'We can still spend time together.' Nial glanced quickly over Hermione's shoulder, before exclaiming loudly,

'Don't talk to me, blood traitor.' Hermione gasped at the words, her eyes filling with tears as Nial walked off, and Hermione saw that his friends had appeared.

Slowly, Hermione walked over to her friends, and could tell that they had heard his last comment. Sirius was angrily poking at a grape with his fork, while James and Remus watched Hermione walk up, concern in their features. Mary and Lily just looked shocked that Nial could have called her that. Peter was pretending to be interested in waffle. Actually, he probably just was more interested in breakfast.

Trying to diffuse the tension as Hermione sat down next to Sirius, she said 'I guess I've moved on from the 'unpurebloody' club to the 'blood traitor' one. You'd better catch up Sirius.' At this, Sirius looked up at Hermione, a tiny smile on his lips as he looked at her, anger still present in his stormy eyes.

'You okay, Hermione?' Remus asked.

'I will be,' Hermione answered honestly. 'For a second I thought I would get to have both my family and my house, but I always knew that Nial cared about what people thought of him, so I should have expected it.'

Sirius growled slightly at this.

'You have us Hermione,' Mary interjected, making Hermione smile.

'I know.'

At that moment, fireworks suddenly started exploding around the great hall and the five friends grinned at each other. The fireworks rapidly grew in volume as everyone in the hall stared at them. The climax of prank was the fireworks rushing towards each other and letting out a very loud bang as the phrase 'WELCOME TO THE NEXT SEVEN YEARS' appeared in midair. Hermione saw Professor McGonagall drop her head into her hands as Hermione, Sirius, James, Peter and Remus began high fiving each other.

Their prank had worked! Thank goodness Remus had read ahead in their textbooks and so knew how to perform the right spells.

After everyone had eaten, the time tables were handed out and Hermione was pleased to see that they all had the same timetable. Looking back, Hermione realised how silly it was to think they might be split up, as houses were too important to the Hogwarts system for that to happen.

Their Monday schedule seemed good to Hermione. Transfiguration and History of Magic before lunch, and Potions after.

Making their way to Transfiguration, the group of Gryffindors got lost five times. They finally made it, seconds before the bell rang signalling the start of class, and scrambled to get to their seats. They shared this class with Hufflepuff, and Hermione ended up sitting next to a boy called Kit Morrison, with Sirius on her left on the three seater table. James was sat with Remus and Peter to her left, while Alice and Lily had been forced to split up and sit with Hufflepuffs due to the lack of seats.

'We are running to the next class,' Lily mouthed to Hermione across the room, causing her to laugh slightly, and shake her head when Sirius looked at her questioningly. Transfiguration went well, and Hermione was excited to be using her wand, even if they were only practising wand movements at that point. History of Magic was awful, however, and by the end Hermione was seriously rethinking her optimistic view of Monday's. Professor Binns was a ghost, which Hermione would have thought was really cool, if he weren't the most boring entity to ever exist…ever.

The group did not let this dampen their spirits, however, as they made their way to Potions. As they had left early from lunch, knowing they would get lost, they were the first group of people there and all seven were able to take the back bench of the room.

'Yes! We're all sat together!' Lily exclaimed, doing a little happy wiggle in her seat, making the others laugh and causing Mary to join in. Their laughter died as they saw who they were sharing the class with. Hermione groaned when she caught sight of her brother's friends Miles and Theon. For some reason, those two hated her, and Hermione knew they influenced Nial's view of her. Peer pressure sucked.

'Hey Herms,' Miles sneered as he walked past, and Hermione scowled at him.

'What do you want Miles,' she said back with her most convincing uninterested voice.

'Just thought we'd talk to you while you were still living,' Miles said, and Theon laughed while Nial sat down a little way away next to Snape, pretending not to notice. Hermione noticed Snape send Lily an annoyed look, obviously annoyed they weren't sitting next to each other.

'What do you mean?' Hermione asked, confused.

'Your mums gonna kill you,' Theon said smugly.

Hermione suddenly heard a chair scrape two seats down from her. 'I'm going to kill you if you don't leave. Now.' Sirius said in a deadly voice, letting his anger get the best of him.

James and Remus stood as well, and all five drew their wands, despite probably only Remus knowing a single spell.

At that moment, Professor Slughorn bustled into the room, evidently ignoring the conflict on purpose as he told the boys to sit down so he could start his lesson.

Hermione was shaking for the rest of the lesson, knowing that what Theon had said was true, and sad that her brother wouldn't stick up for her when two people she'd barely known until yesterday were willing to.

The rest of the day was a happy blur to Hermione as she pushed thoughts of her brother aside, and by the time she clambered into bed, she was exhausted but excited for this new adventure.


	4. First Year

**Chapter 4! This basically wrote itself, I'm enjoying the lack of responsibility and mischief they can get into in the early years. The plan is to do a year per chapter for the first couple years, as there isn't too much to write about them. I didn't realise when I named the story that I would have Black and Gold by Sam Sparro constantly stuck in my head. As always, review and enjoy! And to everyone that has reviewed, thank you for your comments, you the best.**

So focused on acclimatising to life at Hogwarts, Hermione did not notice as the weeks began to blend together. Hermione had written to her parents two days after being sorted into Gryffindor, but had not heard back from them. This was becoming worrying, especially as she had seen the family owl land several times in front of her brother, Nial, at the Slytherin table.

Apart from this worry, everything seemed to be going well. Almost too well, Hermione almost always had something going wrong in her life and the peacefulness seemed to be too good to be true. The only blip was when Remus had become suddenly ill and had to spend three nights in the hospital wing. Herself and the other Gryffindor's had tried to visit him but were told he was possibly contagious so couldn't see anyone. Thankfully, he was only poorly for a few days, but Madam Pomfrey had said he had such a weak immune system that he would most likely be in and out of the hospital wing. Hermione could relate to that, after her disease had left her basically bed ridden for her childhood.

Hermione had been feeling increasingly guilty about lying about her childhood as France had become a popular topic of conversation.

'So Hermione,' Remus asked one evening at dinner, 'have you ever visited Beauxbatons? I read it's in the heart of Paris, which is where you lived right?'

'Erm yeah,' Hermione mumbled, 'but I haven't been to Beauxbatons.'

'But surely you've seen it right? What does it look like?' Lily asked, joining in the conversation.

'I didn't really get out much,' Hermione said, and felt Sirius' eyes on her. When she glanced over at him he was looking at her funnily. Hermione looked away quickly. 'Paris is nice though, from what I saw of it. Notre Dame was my favourite place to visit.' Hermione had read a book set in Paris once and these conversations were really testing her knowledge of it. Thank Merlin for her photographic memory.

Hermione could admit to herself that she was ashamed of her illness. It was so embarrassing to think that she nearly died all because her parents were cousins. Her parents had taught her to hide this secret at all costs, but Hermione was wishing more and more that she could tell someone. Last night she had had a dream that her brother told the whole school, and her friends had been so angry at her they had stopped liking her. It had been at the front of her mind all day.

'It must have been hard growing up without your mum and dad,' Mary added, as she ate her dessert.

'Yeah it was,' Hermione replied wistfully, 'but I've always had my house elf, Tiny. She basically raised me.' This time, Hermione didn't feel as though she was lying. Her parents had struggled with her being ill, and so Hermione rarely saw them or her brother.

'I'd rather be raised by a house elf than have to be around your brother Mione,' James interjected, lightening the tone of the conversation as everyone laughed and nodded their heads in agreement.

Nial had been causing a lot of problems for Hermione, which she suspected was down to his friends. Nial had been tripping her up in the halls and picking fights with James and Sirius where he could. Worse still, he had become good friends with Snape, something which even Lily couldn't defend, and so Hermione's boys had been finding it harder and harder to lay off Snape. Hermione herself had snapped at him during potions after Snape had laughed at an insult from Theon, directed at her. Thankfully Lily hadn't heard.

As everyone stood up from dinner Sirius grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her back.

'We need to talk,' he said, looking her in the eye and showing Hermione that it was serious.

Hermione swallowed, and nodded minutely as Sirius led her outside onto the grounds, and to a large rock overhang above the Black Lake. The view was breath taking, and Hermione took the time to admire it as she waited for Sirius to speak first.

'Did you really live in France?' Sirius asked, and Hermione flinched at the fact that his voice seemed colder than usual.

'Yes-' Hermione started.

'Please tell the truth.'

Hermione turned to look at Sirius and sighed. Here goes nothing.

'No, I didn't.'

'Why would you lie to me Hermione?' Sirius asked, hurt evident in his voice.

'My parents wouldn't let me tell anyone,' Hermione whispered.

'But I'm your best friend,' Sirius said, and at this Hermione began to get frustrated. It was so unfair that this had all happened to her. It was so unfair that she might lose her best friend and it was all her parents fault.

'THAT'S WHY I COULDN'T TELL YOU,' Hermione shouted, her nerves frayed and her heart beating wildly. Sirius recoiled in shock and Hermione instantly felt guilty for losing her temper. 'I'm sorry Siri, I'm sorry for shouting at you, it's just really hard. I'm scared you'll hate me.' Hermione said in a whisper once more, her eyes filling with tears.

Sirius instantly forgot his shock at the sight of his best friend crying. He had promised to himself to always be there for Hermione and so he would do just that. Sirius scooted further up the rock until he could comfortably wrap both his arms around Hermione and draw her into a hug.

'Everything's okay Hermione,' he whispered. 'I could never hate you, we're best friends. We're supposed to hate other people together.' He smiled when he felt Hermione laugh slightly at this. He untangled himself from Hermione and looked her in the eye. 'Please tell me where you were.'

'I was at home,' Hermione replied vaguely on purpose.

'What? That doesn't make any sense. If you were at home, why did you not come to any of the events?'

'Because my parents were ashamed of me,' Hermione said, taking a shuddering breath. 'What do you know of the incest illness?' Hermione questioned Sirius. Incest illness was the nickname for the nameless disease. At Sirius' flinch, Hermione's eyes once more filled with tears. He knew about the illness.

'You- You have?' Sirius' sentence trailed off as he stared at her.

'You think I'm a freak don't you? Oh I'm so sorry, please don't hate me. It's not contagious or anything I-' Hermione was cut off from her panicked rambling as she was tackled to the floor by Sirius, hugging her so tightly she began to struggle for breath.

'Oh my God Hermione, I could never hate you. I just can't believe you're alive. No one's ever survived that before right?' Sirius asked in shock. Hermione nodded mutely. 'I cannot believe you went through all that. Throwing up blood, and fainting and- oh my god how could your parents hide you away like that?'

'Yours would have done the same. It's shameful.' Hermione said, still hanging her head and unable to believe that he wouldn't suddenly turn on her.

'Hermione, it's not your fault. It's your parents fault. I'm not gonna lie, marrying your cousin is pretty gross, but that's not your fault and it's pretty common. It does explain why Nial is a massive jackass though,' Sirius joked in an attempt to make Hermione laugh. It worked. 'Are you better now?' Sirius questioned.

'I was given the all clear by the doctor, but I still feel the symptoms sometimes. Apparently I'll feel them occasionally for the rest of my life, but since no one has ever survived it before they're not entirely sure what to expect.' Hermione explained, not quite believing he was so accepting of her.

'That must have sucked so much,' Sirius commented, and Hermione snorted.

'Sucks is an understatement. All I ever wanted was to see people. That's why I was so upset when we met. I had just found out people aren't as nice as I always imagined they were going to be.'

'You'll never be lonely again Mione, now come one, let's go back to the castle and annoy Remus' Sirius said, standing up and pulling Hermione up with him. Unfortunately, Sirius overestimated Hermione's weight, and ended falling backwards into the Black Lake, still clinging to Hermione as they both made extremely high pitched screams, Sirius' more so than Hermione's.

When they surfaced, Hermione was laughing so hard she could barely breath, 'your scream- your scream,' she choked out, unable to form a full sentence. Despite being embarrassed, Sirius couldn't help laughing too, Hermione's laugh was so infectious. They both traipsed their way up to the Gryffindor common room still chuckling slightly, and when they entered Remus and James turned from their spot playing chess to stare at them.

'What happened?' Remus asked, concerned at their appearances.

'Well you see,' Hermione began. 'Sirius was pulling me up and he-' Hermione snorted, trying to hold in her laughter. 'He pulled me up and-' She started laughing now, unable to hold it in. 'We fell in the- HA- the Black Lake and' Hermione could go no further, tears running down her cheeks as she collapsed onto the sofa next to James giggling uncontrollably. They turned to Sirius for answers, but he was curled up in a ball on the floor, no noise coming out as he silently gasped for air through his laughter.

'It's not even funny,' he choked out, making Hermione's laughter turn to an almost screech.

'It- it is!'

Ten minutes later, Mary and Lily descended the stairs, and saw a sopping wet Hermione and Sirius uncontrollably laughing. They looked questioningly at James and Remus, who merely shrugged and continued with their chess game, eyeing Sirius and Hermione suspiciously every so often.

'JAMES POTTER I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!'

'JAMES RUN!' Sirius burst into the Gryffindor common room, gasping for breath. 'JAMES SHE KNOWS, GET OUT OF HERE!'

Hermione looked up from her book to see Sirius with his hands on his knees, struggling to breathe, as a panic stricken James rushed through the common room and up the stairs to the boy's dormitories. She looked back down to her book as she asked Remus,

'Recon Lily found out about James sticking that 'clean me' sign to the back of Snape's robes?'

'Yeah I think so,' Remus said, not looking up from his book either.

At that moment Lily stormed into the room and a shadow fell over Hermione. She looked up and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. There Lily Evans stood, with bright green hair and a silver face.

'Did you know about this?' Lily asked, in a quiet voice that promised pain.

'Now that, I did not know about,' Hermione replied, unable to hold back a small laugh.

'What do you mean 'Now that'? What else is there to know about?' Lily demanded, her voice rising.

'Absolutely nothing,' Remus said without missing a beat. Sirius came and flopped down on the sofa between Remus and Hermione, resting his arms on both of their shoulders.

'Lily, you're positively glowing.'

'Shut it Black, where is that pathetic friend of yours?' Lily turned her anger to Sirius with her hands on her hips, and Remus and Hermione let out a relieved sigh.

'He's been asked to leave the country,' Sirius replied. 'Not allowed back, very sudden thing actually, we should all be very upset.' Sirius looked at Remus and Hermione and snapped, 'Be upset.' Hermione and Remus schooled their features into looks of heart break and nodded along with Sirius.

'Go get him from upstairs,' Lily demanded.

'Blimey Lily, you're positively green with anger,' Hermione muttered, causing Remus to burst out laughing. Sirius' mouth twitched from its sad expression.

'What was that?' Lily asked.

'Nothing.'

At that moment, to Hermione's relief, James' head poked out from the boy's stairs. When he saw Lily he let out a squeak and disappeared again, but not before Lily had seen him.

'JAMES POTTER YOU COME OUT HERE NOW!'

James suddenly appeared from the bottom of the stairs, and strolled across the common room towards the group as if nothing had happened, and Lily wasn't green and silver.

'James! How was Greece?' Sirius asked, rushing to James to give him a hug.

'Great thanks Sirius, bloody hot though and I-'

'ENOUGH! James Potter you turn me back to normal this instant,' Lily screamed, not amused with their antics.

'Ah, you see Lily, it's not quite that simple. It never really crossed my mind to learn the counter curse actually, so you see, it's a bit of a dilemma,' James said nervously, scratching his head and making his hair even more messy.

Lily turned in panic to Remus, who flinched slightly. 'Remus? Please?'

'Erm, well, ah. I don't actually think you… can,' Remus' voice faded off at the look on Lily's face.

'It should fade naturally in a couple of days,' Hermione added, trying to be helpful.

'A couple of days, oh my god.' Lily said quietly, turning back to James.

'I'm so sorry Lily!' James cried. 'It was an accident, I meant to hit Snape!'

'WHAT?!'

Sirius sighed and sat down next to Hermione, getting comfortable to ride out Lily's anger.

It was nearing Christmas now, and Hermione was getting more and more nervous every passing day. She had never heard back from her parents, and she knew they were angry at her sorting. It was nearing the time for her to go home and face the music. Sirius had received a Howler, and Hermione almost wished she had as well, just to get it over with.

Due to her tension, her school work was suffering. Hermione had gained a bit of a reputation as the house genius, much to Lily's frustration. Hermione's photographic memory meant she got through tests easily and always with flying colours, while everyone else had to study hard to earn good grades. Hermione was just thankful that she had more time for interesting books instead of the boring textbooks they were forced to read. However, even Hermione could not take in any work when she was so distracted. This distraction came to a head in the last transfiguration class before the holidays.

The class was supposed to be turning goblets into frogs, and Hermione was able to perform the spell pretty well. Her mind was therefore wandering to the upcoming holidays. Unfortunately, this meant she did not notice as Peter came up to her to ask for help with his own spell as he was struggling with the pronunciation. When Peter tapped her on the shoulder to gain her attention, she turned quickly in shock, mid spell, causing it to hit Peter squarely in the chest.

Where Peter once stood, there was a perfectly formed green frog, with yellow splats across its skin.

Hermione screamed then shouted,

'OH MY GOD I TURNED PETER INTO A FROG!'

Sensing an opportunity for chaos, James, Sirius and Remus decided to join in.

'OH MY GOD HERMIONE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!' James shouted, leaping from his desk.

'PETER, CROAK IF YOU CAN HEAR ME! IT'S GOING TO BE OKAY!' Remus was crouched on the floor bellowing into the ear of the frog that was once Peter. It croaked once.

'PETER'S GOING TO DIE!' James exclaimed, grabbing onto Hermione's robes he shook her violently, screaming into her face as she burst into hysterical tears.

'I'M SO SORRY PETER I'LL FIND YOU A NICE FROG FAMILY!' Hermione cried. 'I WON'T LET YOU DIE I PROMISE!'

'WHHHYYYY GOD WHYYYYY?!' The entire class was laughing at this point as Sirius dropped to the floor, looking up at the ceiling with his arms outstretched. It seemed to only be Hermione that was genuinely upset by the situation as even the frog had fallen to the ground on its back, pretending to be dead as Remus shook it, still screaming. The screaming and chaos lasted several minutes before Professor McGonagall was able to shout loud enough to be heard.

'That is ENOUGH!' Professor McGonagall had never looked so angry, and soon the boys had stopped shouting, the only sound in the classroom now the sobbing of Hermione Avery. McGonagall turned Peter back into a boy, and Hermione's cries began to slow. 'I have never seen such outrageous behaviour in my life. You five swan around like a bunch of MARAUDERS, causing havoc and RUINING lessons. How you pass any tests is beyond me. Detention, tonight at seven. Go and sit down, all of you. I am disgusted.'

The five traipsed back to their seats, Sirius and James high fiving subtly under the desk as Hermione wiped her eyes, embarrassed that she had over reacted so much when obviously Professor McGonagall would be able to change Peter back. The stress of her family was really getting to her.

As the class left at the end of the lesson Kit Morrison whispered in Hermione's ear, 'That is the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life.' Hermione smiled at him, her eyes still slightly watery.

'Less funny for me I think, I really thought I'd turned him into a frog for life,' she replied.

Kit laughed again, 'See you later Avery.'

Hermione ran and caught up to her friends.

'What did Morrison want?' Sirius asked with a frown.

'Nothing really,' Hermione answered.

James flung his arms over Hermione and Sirius' shoulders, pulling them closer to him.

'Did you guys hear what McGonagall called us?' He asked with a grin.

'Do you mean when she was shouting at us or when she was swearing to herself afterwards?' Remus asked as he reached the group with Peter.

'When she was shouting,' James looked at the group with a glint in his eyes, 'she called us marauders.'

'Brilliant,' Sirius breathed. 'It's perfect!'

The five grinned to each other, before Lily and Mary came over.

'What do you guys look so excited about?' Mary asked, before Lily shot her a warning look. Never ask this particular group of people that question, you usually wouldn't like the answer.

'Dear Lily and Mary,' James began.

'We would like to introduce you to,' Remus carried on.

'The Marauders!' Sirius and Hermione said at the same time, high fiving.

Lily rolled her eyes, pulling Mary off to their next class.

Hermione swallowed as the Hogwarts express pulled in to platform nine and three quarters.

'Mione, stop worrying it's going to be okay,' Remus said as they stood up and he pulled her into a hug. 'They're your parents they love you no matter what.'

The five exited the train and Hermione could immediately see her parents. Nial was already standing with them, and Hermione's mother gestured for Hermione to hurry up.

Rolling her eyes, Hermione turned to face her friends.

'Wish me luck,' she said shakily. One by one the four boys hugged her. Sirius hugged her last, and squeezed her extra tight, hanging on longer to whisper in her ear,

'I'll see you at the Flint New Year's Ball, just try to survive until then Mione. And I hope you like the present I got you.'

'You too Sirius,' Hermione whispered back, 'don't let your mum get you down, and enjoy your time with Regulus.'

They pulled back and smiled at each other before Hermione waved to all four and walked slowly over to her family.

Hermione's dad pulled her into a quick hug while her mother just frowned, before apparating them to the manor.

After a tearful reunion with Tiny, who was proud of her Miss for getting into Gryffindor, Hermione sombrely made her way to the dining room for dinner. When she arrived, her parents and brother were already there waiting for her. Hermione quickly went to her seat around the large table, and the room was silent as the family was served dinner by their house elves.

'Thank you,' Hermione uttered quietly to the house elf as she was served, causing her mother to purse her lips.

'So,' her father began. 'Nial, tell me about your first term at Hogwarts.'

'Well father,' Nial replied in a posher tone than usual. 'It's gone really well. I've settled in quickly and it's great to have Theon and Miles with me. Flying lessons are going well and I've been assured that I am a sure thing for the Quidditch team next year.' Hermione rolled her eyes at how pompous Nial sounded.

'And your studies?' Hermione's father questioned.

'Um, well the course is very complex. I'm keeping up and my grades are good,' Nial said, faltering slightly. Both he and Hermione knew he was not getting good grades, and Nial looked nervously at Hermione, as if expecting her to tell her parents he was lying. Hermione kept quiet.

Their father nodded before turning to Hermione. 'And you?'

Hermione swallowed before answering, 'I'm really enjoying Hogwarts father, I have made some really good friends.' Hermione's mother snorted delicately at this.

'Not getting into trouble?' He questioned.

Hermione shook her head, before sending her brother a warning glance; as if to say, I won't tell about your grades if you don't tell about my detentions.

'And your studies?'

'I'm top of the year father,' she replied, hoping to move the conversation away from anything that could get her into trouble.

At this Hermione's mother butted in. 'Nial, you're letting a Gryffindor beat you?' Hermione and Nial both looked very uncomfortable at this. 'You'll have to work harder. I will not have the family reputation ruined because you can't keep up with _Gryffindors_.' She sneered the last word.

'I'm part of the family though,' Hermione interjected indignantly.

'Be quiet Hermione,' her mother snapped. Hermione sunk lower into her seat, and spent the rest of the meal saying as little as possible. The rest of the holiday went pretty much the same way, with Hermione hiding in her room either reading or talking to Tiny about her adventures at Hogwarts, and her friends, while her mother took every opportunity to put her down. The only reprieve was seeing Sirius at the New Year's Ball, but even despite that, Hermione was itching to go back home to Hogwarts.

Sirius had had just as bad of a time as Hermione with his parents, but he had at least had his younger brother for company.

Hermione, Mary and Lily were sat in the courtyard one weekend in late April chatting and enjoying one of the first warm days of the year, when a group of girls from their year in Ravenclaw came up to them, giggling.

One girl was pushed forward by her friend, and laughed before addressing the three Gryffindor girls.

'You three are friends with Sirius Black right?' she asked, giggling.

'Erm not really no,' Lily replied, frowning. 'I mean, Mione is I guess.'

The Ravenclaw turned her attention to Hermione.

'You hang out with Sirius Black right?' She asked expectantly.

'He's my best friend.' Hermione said curtly, not liking her tone.

'They call themselves the Marauders,' another girl interjected.

'Oh yeah, you pull all those stupid pranks,' Hermione bristled at this.

'What do you want?' Hermione went straight to the point, shocking the Ravenclaws slightly with her hostile tone.

'Would you introduce me to him?' The first girl asked, giggling again.

'Why would I do that?' Hermione was genuinely confused, and gave Lily and Mary a look as if to say 'what is going on?' Lily and Mary shook their heads at her, they had no clue.

'Because he's so funny, and he's handsome,' the Ravenclaw replied, flicking her straight black hair behind her.

'And he's rich,' another girl added, causing all of the girls to laugh again.

'I thought you thought the pranks were stupid?' Hermione retorted.

'Please Harriet?'

'It's Hermione,' Mary said, frowning.

'Whatever,' the Ravenclaw dismissed. 'Just tell Sirius that Amy Smith says hi.'

As the group of girls began to walk away Hermione turned to Lily and Mary.

'What just happened?'

From that point on, whenever Hermione and Sirius were together Hermione could feel eyes burning a hole into the back of her head. Hermione and Sirius were very affectionate with each other, and so if ever they were walking down the corridor holding hands, or sat on the rock by the lake that had become their spot, Hermione slightly feared for her life. Hermione told Sirius of the event, and he had shivered.

'That girl constantly corners me,' he confessed. 'It's a bit creepy.' At Hermione's frown he continued. 'Don't worry Mione, you'll always be my best friend, and my favourite girl in the world.'

Soon enough, the Marauder's first year was coming to a close. The five best friends were sat in what they had decided was their compartment on the train, and were chatting about the year that had just gone by. Hermione and Sirius were both unusually subdued, and the other three knew it was due to their circumstances at home.

When the train trundled into the station, the five said their goodbyes. James, Remus and Peter left the compartment first to leave the two best friends alone to say goodbye.

Hermione and Sirius hugged ferociously, and when they pulled back, both of their eyes were watery. Sirius only ever showed his vulnerability around Hermione.

'Write to me yeah Mione?' He asked, voice slightly wobbly.

'Of course Siri,' Hermione answered, her voice getting caught. 'We'll probably see each other at events, but mum won't let me talk to you.' Sirius and Hermione had become used to spending most of their time together, and so the eight weeks apart was going to be a hard adjustment.

'We'll both make it through this summer just fine, I promise,' Sirius said as he pulled her to him once more.

They left the train holding hands, but were forced to separate as they stepped onto the platform. Hermione hoped the summer would go quickly, but with only books for comfort, she wasn't very hopeful.


	5. Second Year

**Chapter 5! I hope you guys all enjoy it. I think I will only be doing one more year as a single chapter, but it depends on what I come up with for fourth year. I have so many ideas for their later years and the war that can be developed and detailed, but I wanted to depict them as carefree children in the younger years, messing around but also seeing the beginning of their war time characters form. Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews, feel free to keep them coming, I love the input!**

Hermione practically sprinted down the Hogwarts Express, barely saying good bye to her parents in her haste to see her friends. When she made it to their compartment she was severely out of breath, and had to stop for a second before flinging open the door.

'Hermione!' Hermione was immediately tackled by Sirius, who gripped her into a vice like hug as she grinned and squeezed him back.

'Group hug!' she heard James call, before the other three boys piled on top of Sirius and Hermione, causing the entire group to fall to the floor as Hermione laughed, so grateful to have the best friends a girl could ask for.

Once everyone had calmed down and sat in their seats, Hermione asked how everyone's summers had been. Of course they had exchanged letters, but it wasn't the same as talking face to face.

The group chatted happily for the whole journey, glad that the Marauders were back together after such a long time apart. Lily and Mary joined the group half way through and Hermione couldn't contain the smile on her face even if she tried. Bring on second year.

A few days into the start of term found the marauders sat in the common room, Hermione and Remus attempting to help the others with a potions essay on the benefits and drawbacks of a hair growth potion.

'This is hopeless,' Sirius said as he collapsed backwards. 'No one even cares. When will I ever need this potion, have you seen my hair?' At this he flicked his head dramatically causing his ever growing hair to tousle.

'It's perfection Sirius,' James rolled his eyes. Glancing around quickly, James gestured for the four to lean in towards him. 'I've been waiting for the perfect time and I think that's now. Everyone up to the boy's dormitories.'

The four followed James upstairs curiously, wondering what was so important it couldn't be discussed in the empty common room. When Hermione reached their room, she was shocked at the mess. They'd only been there three days for crying out loud. The four beds were all unmade, and there were clothes strewn all over the floor. Posters and pictures were stuck on the walls, James' obsession with Puddlemere United becoming painfully apparent. Hermione stopped to admire a photo of herself and Sirius, taped above Sirius' bed. The picture had been taken a few weeks after the Christmas holiday in their first year when an unexpected snowfall overnight created the perfect conditions for the marauders to have a snowball war. The photo showed Sirius tackling Hermione into a pile of snow before they both looked over to the camera, wide smiles on their faces as they laughed.

The biggest shock of the room was the complete mess surrounding and piled upon Remus's bed. The entire area was covered in chocolate wrappers, with half eaten bars resting on the pillow and bedside table.

'Dear God Remus, I expected better from you. No wonder you're always ill.' Hermione mock scolded Remus, who stuck his tongue out at her in return before grabbing the chocolate from his pillow.

'Well get on with it James,' Sirius said while flopping down onto his bed, pulling Hermione with him. Hermione let out an 'oomph' as she landed on Sirius' chest, and couldn't help a small blush as Sirius sat up and grabbed her hand. They were always like this so Hermione had no idea why she was blushing, it must be because she hadn't seen him in a couple of months. As they both got comfortable on Sirius' bed, Remus sat on the end and all three watched as James rummaged through his trunk, his butt stuck in the air.

'Nice ass James,' Remus joked through bites.

'Watch it Remus,' James said as he stood, but there was a grin on his face. Hermione giggled, making Sirius smile, he had missed that sound over the summer.

'What's this all about?' Peter asked, from his bed. 'It's nearly dinner time.'

'Dear Peter, what I am about to show you is better than any food Hogwarts may have to offer.'

This peaked the groups interest, everyone knew how much James loved to eat.

'Calm down James, don't say things you can't take back,' Sirius joked.

James rolled his eyes, but opened his arms to allow a cloak to become visible. 'TADA!' James thrust out the black cloak to the group.

'Wooow James, that is a nice cloak. It'll match your hair,' Hermione was trying to be encouraging, but to be honest she was a bit underwhelmed. Sirius snorted.

James looked at her like she was stupid. 'No Mione, you don't understand. Here, just put it on for me yeah?'

'Okayyy,' Hermione untangled herself from Sirius and wrapped the cloak around her, pretending to pose like a model. At the stunned looks the boys were giving her she assumed she must look ridiculous. 'Alright guys, it was just a joke. We all know I couldn't be a model but lets at least pretend.'

'Of course you could be Mione,' Sirius quickly replied. ' But Look down at yourself though.'

When Hermione looked down, she let out a squeak.

'I'm invisible!' she exclaimed. 'No way! Where did you get this? It's like the one from the Tale of the Three Brothers!'

'It's been in my family for centuries,' James said smugly. 'Charms don't work on it or anything.'

'Think of all the pranks we could pull!' Peter exclaimed.

'I like your thinking Peter,' Sirius said, grinning over at him as they five began to plot about all the things they would be able to achieve now they had an invisibility cloak.

Hermione was glad that James had shown them all this. Sirius had been more subdued this year and was seeking out physical affection from Hermione, and Hermione assumed it was because of his brother being sorted into Slytherin. While Hermione wasn't complaining about hugging her best friend, it hurt her to see him obviously distressed. Sirius had always known Regulus would go to Slytherin, as he was very easily persuaded by their family, but a little bit of him had hoped that Regulus would follow him into Gryffindor and they could remain close. James showing them all the cloak had brought the spark back into Sirius's eyes, and Hermione was very relieved.

'Boys,' Hermione butted into their conversation, cutting Peter off. 'I think we're all forgetting the most important use for this cloak. We can finally find the kitchens.'

'Hermione, you're a genius. Imagine all the chocolate cake we can eat.' Remus's eyes were glistening at the thought of unlimited access to chocolate.

'Good thinking Mione, common room tonight at midnight?' James questioned of the group. At their excited nods he smirked. 'The hunt is on.'

The five ended up in detention the next evening. They had just about managed to fit under the cloak with Hermione and Peter riding on Sirius and Remus's backs, as they stumbled their way around the first floor at one am looking for the kitchen. However, they had not realised that while they were invisible, they could still be heard. Professor McGonagall, who was patrolling the corridor, had therefore unfortunately enough heard one Remus Lupin exclaim, 'Bloody Hell Peter, for someone so small you're pretty fucking heavy.' She had also heard the sound of three people's laughter, all of them shocked that Remus had sworn and unable to hold back their chuckles.

'Marauders,' Professor McGonagall had snarled despite not being able to see them, and the laughter immediately ended.

Halloween had come and gone, and the Marauders were certainly keeping up their reputation. They had even managed to find the kitchens after Sirius had cornered a house elf one night in the Gryffindor common room. Hermione claimed it was cheating since he had had to ask, but at least now they knew where the promised land was. The group made nearly daily trips to the kitchens and sometimes even brought Lily and Mary, and all but Hermione were stuffing themselves to the brim. Hermione was frankly disgusted by the boys, but all the same could occasionally force herself to eat an éclair… or three.

It was a Saturday in early November, and Hermione, Sirius, and James were on their way back from a successful trip to the kitchens. They were practically waddling as they passed the entrance to the great hall, hoping to get back to the common room in time to play a few games of exploding snap before Sirius and James had Quidditch practise. They had both made the team at the beginning of the year; Sirius as a beater and James as a Chaser. Hermione was thrilled for them, but this did not affect her fear of flying. She flat out refused to get on a broom, causing her first ever detention in her first year, given to her by the flying instructor. Even magic had its limits, and flying was it in Hermione's humble opinion.

Hermione felt a shoulder slam into her just as she reached the top flight of steps, knocking her bag to the floor as she stumbled.

'Watch where you're going, Avery,' Hermione looked to see that it was Miles that had knocked her, and he was with Theon and Nial, the latter glaring at Sirius.

'You walked into her,' Sirius said, stepping forwards towards the three boys, fists clenched. James stepped forward too, placing Hermione behind them both.

'It was an accident,' Nial interjected, stepping forward towards the two boys.

'Letting your friends fight your battles now Flint?' James mocked, and Theon's face twisted in anger.

'Watch your mouth Potter, I'd be careful what you say to me considering your traitor blood.' He snarled.

'Better blood traitor than looking like a troll's arse hole,' Hermione joined in, stepping between the two boys and pushing Theon backwards. Hermione could feel her anger bubbling upwards once more. She was sick of being walked over by her brother and his friends. Never once had Nial stuck up for her, they were twins for merlin's sake. They were supposed to look out for each other, but Nial felt like barely more than an acquaintance. How many times had she ignored his actions, hoping he would see that she still cared, that the bridge wasn't burned yet? Hermione was feeling more and more like torching it herself.

'Stay out of this Hermione,' Nial warned her.

'Don't act like you care,' she snapped back.

'You gonna let her talk to you like that?' Miles questioned, urging Nial to put Hermione in her place.

'Let me?' Hermione asked indignantly. 'Nial has no say in what I do or say.'

'Shut up Hermione.'

'NO YOU SHUT UP NIAL.' Hermione exploded. 'I have spent years of my life chasing after you, trying to get you to care about me. I finally stopped giving a crap once I met Sirius and made my own friends and my own life, and suddenly all you can do is bully and ridicule me. If you have something to say, then just say it. What do you want from me Nial? You're nothing but a pathetic mummy's boy, you're a coward who's too afraid to stand up to his friends, and one day you'll be sat all on your own thinking about a sister you once had that will have NOTHING to do with you anymore, all because you were TOO SCARED TO PISS OFF YOUR PRECIOUS MOTHER!'

Suddenly, Hermione felt herself flying backwards. She barely had time to register that Nial must have pushed her down the stairs before the pain of her head, back, arms hitting every step consumed her. She landed on her arm in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairs, tears filling her eyes and blood filling her mouth. She could vaguely hear Sirius and James shouting her name in panic as she screamed for all she was worth.

'YOU'RE A COWARD NIAL! A FILTHY COWARD! I HATE YOU!'

Hermione had to stop her shouting as she began to throw up blood, and everything went black.

When Hermione began to regain consciousness, she could feel that she was no longer lying on the floor but in a rather comfortable bed. Attempting to open her eyes, Hermione squinted against the bright light.

'Where am I?' She croaked out.

'Oh my god! Hermione you're awake!' The relieved voice of Sirius reached her eyes and she opened her eyes fully.

'Sirius? What happened?'

Sirius's face darkened at this question as he reached for Hermione's hand and gave it a squeeze. 'Your brother,' Sirius spat. 'He pushed you down the stairs. You broke your arm, three ribs and got a concussion. They're all healed now though, you've been out for two days.'

Hermione's mind was reeling at this, she couldn't believe her brother had gone that far. A tear fell down her cheek as she realised that finally, the ties with her family were beginning to break.

As Christmas inched ever closer, Hermione never thought she had seen something so magical. No spell or potion, enchantment or creature. The Black Lake was completely frozen over and you could just about see fish swimming just below the surface, and each blade of grass covering the grounds was tipped with ice. The Forbidden Forest seemed to be the only space untouched by the freezing winter, the trees standing ominously behind Hermione as she sat on her and Sirius's rock. The real reason for Hermione being sat there was that she needed somewhere to think. She was worried about Sirius, while everyone else was getting more and more excited as Christmas came up he seemed to be retreating. Neither of them had particularly great home lives but Sirius usually took it on the chin, so Hermione wasn't really sure what was going on. The thought of Sirius struggling with something and not going to anyone for help had put a frown on her face for a few days now, but she didn't know whether he would appreciate her interfering.

Shaking her head, Hermione berated herself. They were close enough that she could ask him if he was okay. Her old insecurities were plaguing her, she needed to stop the feeling that she could be left friendless again, because it simply wasn't true. Even if the worst ever happened and she was kicked out of the Marauders, her friendship with Lily and Mary would still remain. The girls were incredibly close, Hermione felt as close to them as she did to James or Remus and knew that should something ever happen and the boys stuck with Sirius, Hermione would not lose her girl friends. Not that her and Sirius would ever fall out of course. They had the same views on basically everything. Perhaps Nial wasn't actually her twin and Sirius was instead. Somehow, thinking of Sirius as a brother felt weird and Hermione immediately pushed that notion out of her head.

'Right,' Hermione promised herself. 'Next time you and Sirius are alone you will bring up whatever is bothering him.'

That opportunity arose the very next day, only two days before the Christmas holiday began. Hermione and Sirius had been sent by an irate Remus to kitchens on a chocolate hunt, and as it was still an hour until curfew they were not forced to shuffle along under the invisibility cloak. They were currently wandering the fourth floor looking for a staircase to take them down, Sirius quiet as had become the new usual. Hermione sighed, it was now or never.

'Sirius?' Hermione said, grabbing onto his sleeve. 'Can we stop for a minute? I want to talk.' Hermione teased her lip between her teeth as Sirius stuffed his hands into his pockets.

'What about?' he asked cautiously.

'I'm worried about you Siri, you've been quiet for the last couple of weeks and I thought maybe you'd get better but you're not. Is everything okay? You're not ill or something are you? You don't have to leave Hogwarts?' Hermione's eyes were growing wider as every possible reason for Sirius being quiet passed through her head, each worse than the last.

'Hermione, I'm fine,' Sirius replied in a monotone voice.

'I don't believe that for one second Sirius Orion Black,' Hermione said, her voice becoming reproachful. 'Please just tell me, maybe I can help.'

Sirius sighed. 'Everything is royally fucked.'

'What's wrong?'

'Fine, I'll tell you, but you can't tell anyone not even-,'

Hermione did not find out who she wasn't supposed to tell, for at that second Sirius had leaned on the mirror behind him only to fall backwards and promptly disappear.

'SIRIUS!' Hermione exclaimed.

'Bloody hell,' Hermione heard from behind the mirror.

'What the?' When she went to investigate, she pushed the mirror aside to see a long corridor shrouded in darkness with no discernible end. 'This is so cool!' she exclaimed.

'Yeah maybe for you,' Sirius grumbled. 'You didn't nearly get murdered.'

'Oh don't be such a drama queen Sirius,' Hermione said, laughing slightly. 'Lumos' she muttered before sliding down the side of the wall to side beside Sirius, letting the mirror swing back and cover the exit. Hermione's wand gave off the only light source. 'Now, what's had you so down recently?'

'My family,' Sirius mumbled, his previous mood returning.

'What about them?' Hermione was genuinely confused, he hadn't had any letters that she could remember from them, except one from his uncle Alphard which had contained nothing except a denial of Sirius's request for a new broom. Surely he couldn't be this upset over a broom.

'Before the end of the summer we got in a big fight.'

'What about?' Hermione asked.

'You actually,' Sirius said, trying to sound nonchalant.

'What? Why?' Hermione was really concerned now, was it all her fault that Sirius was miserable?

'Well, it was kind of about you. My mother, charming as she is, brought up how close we are, asked what our status was. I told her you were my best friend, and she was all like 'good, I'll call the Avery family and set up a proposal',' Hermione gasped at this. 'So of course I started shouting at her, said how your mum hates me so they wouldn't say yes, and anyway, I want to make my own mind up. I don't want an arranged marriage. So she starting spouting this rubbish about how if that was the case then she would pair me off with Bellatrix, my fucking cousin.' Hermione blanched, Bellatrix was in her fifth year at Hogwarts and was really scary. 'I of course said hell no. As you can imagine that didn't go down very well. The woman hit me with a stunner, sent me across the room, and said I can't go home until I agree.' Sirius ended his mini rant by standing up and pushing his hair away from his face in frustration.

'Oh my god Sirius, you should have told me,' Hermione said, her heart breaking for Sirius. She had been thrown off slightly by the fact that Sirius's mum had wanted them to be engaged, sure Sirius was attractive and she could never imagine being closer to anyone than they were, but it just seemed like a decision they should be allowed to make, not their parents.

'Are you betrothed?' Sirius asked her.

'I don't know; what sort of age are these things done?' Hermione frowned, wondering if she should write home.

'God this is messed up,' Sirius commented, nearly laughing at how ridiculous it all was. 'If I did marry you it would not be thanks to my precious mother.' Hermione blushed, but tried to not think about the flutter in her stomach.

'So, you're sad that your mother won't let you home for Christmas?' Hermione asked, trying to wrap her head around why he had been getting sadder as the holiday approached.

'Well, it's not so much that I want to see my family, it's never been a merry holiday with that bat around. I'm more just upset that you guys are all going home, it'll just be me here.'

'I'll stay,' Hermione replied immediately, not even having to think about it.

'Hermione, I can't ask you to do that.'

'Yeah, cus spending two weeks with just Nial and my mother for company is my dream come true,' Hermione said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

'Hermione, be serious.'

'But you're Sirius?' Hermione winked, and could only just see Sirius roll his eyes due to the poor lighting. Hermione hauled herself to her feet and put both her hands on Sirius's shoulders.

'I'm staying, we could try and have a proper Christmas!' Hermione began to get excited. 'We could bake in the Kitchens, and enchant mistletoe to force people to kiss, and we could decorate a tree! Oh Sirius mum never let me decorate the tree let's do that!' By the time Hermione stopped talking Sirius was grinning at her.

He pulled her into a hug as he whispered 'thanks Mione.'

'You're welcome,' Hermione smiled fondly at him. 'Now, let's go get that chocolate before Remus kills us.'

That Christmas, ten of the twelve students that remained at Hogwarts could be found hiding in their respective common rooms, scared of two of the five famous pranksters that had made it their personal mission to enjoy Christmas, potentially at the expense of their fellow students.

Hermione and Sirius did indeed decorate a tree, but decided to combine it with beating a Marauder record. How long could a Marauder spend in the Forbidden Forest before they got too scared and ran out again. The answer shot up from three minutes (James potter, September) to four hours. If anyone were to accidentally get lost in the forest, it was very possible that they would stumble across a gold flashing Christmas tree, with roaring lions dangling from every available branch and a replica of Professor Dumbledore signing Silent Night from the top of the tree. All five marauders had only gotten each other sweets for Christmas, as Remus couldn't afford to get anyone more than that and they didn't want him to feel guilty, and so there weren't any packages to put under their tree, but Hermione could not remember ever being happier at Christmas than she was that year.

Hermione and Sirius almost didn't want anyone to come back to the castle, but did acknowledge that they had maybe a tiny bit missed the other Marauders, Hermione also saying that it would be nice to escape from the company of boys for a while and spend time with Lily and Mary. One perk of the other three Marauders coming back after the holiday was that it meant Sirius and Hermione could finally explore the hidden passageway they had found, and find out where it led to.

The passage had seemed to go on forever, their voices echoing as they stumbled deeper, the terrain getting less like it belonged in a castle and more like they were in some sort of underground pipe.

'God Sirius, it stinks. Have you showered at all recently,' James joked.

'Har Har James, good one,' Sirius replied sardonically.

What felt like an eternity but was actually just over an hour later, the five friends began to see light.

'Dear sweet light! I have missed you!' James cried.

'Now we all have to see Peter's face again,' Remus added, pulling a disgusted face as a joke.

'Hey,' Peter cried indignantly.

'It was a joke Peter, calm down,' Hermione rolled her eyes. Ever since the sorting feast their first year Hermione had always felt like Peter was just kind of there, butting in but not doing anything. She really wanted to be close to him like she was to the others, but something about him just rubbed her up the wrong way. He got offended by everything, and didn't take part in stuff, but still took the glory for it. He hadn't done a single thing in the prank they pulled on a group of Hufflepuffs, where they made it so a puff of smoke came out of their mouths every time they tried to speak, but Hermione had seen him surrounded by Ravenclaws retelling the story as though it had been his idea. Hermione felt quite petty for thinking these things, and so didn't voice them to the others. Peter was a Marauder and that was all that was important. Now if only he wasn't so damn annoying.

'Where are we?' Remus asked, not recognising the cobbled street and thatched roofs.

'No way!' James shouted. 'Boys! And er, girl, we are now Hogwarts legends! We have found an actual passageway that leads to Hogsmeade.'

The other four began to whoop as they realised where they were, but made no move to venture into the village. As luck wouldn't have it, it was a Hogsmeade weekend, and if five rather infamous second years were spotted by the older students their fun would be over before it had begun.

'We _have_ to come back with your cloak James,' Sirius said, grinning widely.

'Think of the possibilities,' Hermione joked, and James threw his arm around her to pull her close to him.

'I like your thinking Mione,' At this James picked her up and began to twirl her around, her laughter growing as he did so.

'Alright James, put the lady down before she pukes,' Sirius laughed.

'Jealous Sirius?' Remus challenged him.

'Oh yes. I'm the only James is allowed to twirl around.' Sirius said before flouncing off back down the passage, flicking his hair dramatically as he went.

Remus chuckled, and the four followed after Sirius back to Hogwarts.

It was now May, and Hermione had been in the Library for five hours. She honestly wanted to knock herself out with one of these books, but knew that that would not make her essay on the danger of Vampires disappear. Hermione never usually struggled with homework, but having leant her book to Sirius who promptly lost it and the library being out of spares, Hermione had little option but to use obscure books for her homework until her new copy arrived by owl post.

'Kill me now,' she groaned, flicking pages randomly, as if expecting a model essay to jump from the book onto her parchment. Hey, it was a magical school, Hermione could dream right?

The book stopped on a page about Werewolves, and Hermione was so sick of all the different synonyms of blood that she was happy to read about something else for a break. That was until Hermione saw the word plasma, and dropped her head to the table.

'Ow,' she hissed, sitting back up and rubbing her forehead. As she did so, the list of symptoms was in her eye sight, and as she read her mouth began to drop open.

All of the symptoms perfectly described Remus. Irritable once a month, check. Tired once a month, check. Sweet tooth, check. Hermione took a moment to snigger that the book was also describing the entire female population. Poor female Werewolves, it was like they had two periods a month, except one involved an excruciating transformation. Hermione shuddered. The book went on to mention about Werewolves being littered with scars, and preferring their meat undercooked, and Hermione was struggling to find a characteristic that did not fit Remus. She would have to pay attention to the times when Remus was ill or 'visiting his grandma' and see if they correlated with the full moon.

Hermione frowned. If Remus really was a werewolf, why hadn't he told any of them? Surely he knew that they would not abandon him or think differently of him. I mean, how scared could you be of a boy that gets his mum to send him underwear in the post? It must have been so horrible for Remus to have to keep such a huge secret from them, and Hermione decided that if Remus did not want them to know then she would keep his secret. All this time Sirius and Hermione had thought having James, a known blood traitor, as a friend would most piss of their parents, but a werewolf. Hermione laughed slightly to herself, they weren't to know that Remus was the least scary person in existence. But how could she help him?

Hermione decided that over the summer she would do some research in the family library, hopefully her family would leave her alone as much as usual. Hermione packed away all of her work after this, deciding to spend her last few exam free days before the summer holiday with her best friends, werewolf or not.


	6. Third Year

**So here's the next chapter! I've had a dead busy few days. Thursday was A level results day, and then after that I was on a two-day shift working at a race course, which was exhausting. It actually made me quite ill so I spent all of yesterday dying. But today I was feeling better and I've missed this story for the few days I was unable to write. Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews and keep them coming!**

As Hermione sat in the Hogwarts express on her way to her third year at Hogwarts, she couldn't help but admire the boys she was sat with. The summer had been one of change for all of them looks wise, as puberty seemed to finally be doing its job.

Peter was perhaps the most unchanged, as he remained fairly small and round faced, however he had grown his hair out in a similar way to Sirius's and was beginning to grow into his rather large eyes.

Remus was the complete opposite of Peter, as he had changed greatly over the summer. While already tall, Remus had shot upwards and would now tower over Hermione, her head barely reaching his shoulders. He had gained a tan over the summer, and due to all the hiking he and his family did he was extremely lean and fit.

James had also gotten taller, although remained smaller than Remus or Sirius. James's features had not changed much, and due to his ever present circular glasses Hermione did not think any of his defining qualities were different. For as long as Hermione had known him he had looked quite grown up, and it seemed now that the other boys were beginning to catch up.

Hermione took her time appreciating Sirius. The summer had been very kind to him. All of the childish roundness to his face had left him, causing his aristocratic features to become much more defined. Features such as his sharp jawline and high cheekbones were much more prominent, and as Sirius flashed Hermione a grin he reserved just for her, his pearly white teeth on show, Hermione's heart stopped. This was not good; she would seriously need to get a grip on that. Sirius had also grown quite tall, nearly as tall as Remus, and so Hermione's head came to just below his chin, his hair flopping down past his ears now. Hermione was not sure what he had been doing over the summer, but whatever it was had caused him to gain a fair amount of muscle, and he wore tighter shirts that accentuated this. Hermione rolled her eyes slightly, at least his vainness wouldn't change.

Hermione did not realise but as she was assessing Sirius, he was also assessing her. Sirius's eyes roamed over her figure, and he couldn't help but smile roguishly as he noticed certain areas of her form had developed. Hermione had always been quite thin as she was often too absorbed in books to notice silly things such as hunger, but despite this she was starting to become quite curvy. Hermione's hair had also tamed somewhat, and the waves looked a lot more manageable, easier for Sirius to run his fingers through; her eyes stayed as round as ever though, and were definitely Sirius's favourite thing about her as they were just so expressive. One thing that hadn't changed about Hermione, however, was her height, and Sirius knew he would have some fun with this fact.

'Hey midget,' he called, and grinned even wider when Hermione glared at him slightly. 'We're at Hogsmeade, let's go.' Hermione started as she realised Sirius was correct, she had been too busy daydreaming about a certain Marauder to notice.

Sirius swung his arm over her shoulder and pulled her closer to him, and Hermione knew she was a gonner. Crushing on your best friend was bad, but since it was Sirius Black she was sure no one could blame her.

As Hermione and her friends walked towards the carriages, Hermione bumped into her friend Kit. They had met in Transfiguration in their first year and had a lot in common. Kit had curly blonde hair and blue eyes, with a kind expression. Hermione did not know a single person that didn't like him, except for Sirius of course.

'Alright Mione?' Kit asked with a friendly grin. Sirius was forced to stop due to his arm around Hermione, and scowled at Kit.

'Hi Kit!' Hermione exclaimed, she really did like him; he was easy to get on with and very funny once you got to know him. Kit always hung around with two other Hufflepuff boys, Sam and Rob, who were at that point pulling faces at Hermione from behind Kit's back, making her giggle slightly.

Kit turned to look behind him before rolling his eyes at Hermione. 'I'd better go, those two need me to look after them.'

'I know the feeling,' Hermione joked, with a quick glance at Sirius.

'See you soon Mione, come sit at the Hufflepuff table sometime if those boys of yours drive you crazy.' Kit winked before leaning in and kissing Hermione on the cheek. Hermione was quite shocked by this; she hadn't thought they were that close, must be a Hufflepuff thing. 'Nice chat Sirius.' At that, Kit jogged off back to his friends. Hermione had to admit that the summer had been kind to Kit as well as to the Marauders.

'Nice chat Sirius,' Sirius mocked in a high voice as he began to pull Hermione towards the carriage the rest of the Marauders were waiting in. Hermione rolled her eyes, but grabbed the hand that was dangling from around her shoulders, making Sirius smile down at her warmly, the annoyance gone from his eyes.

'Boys are weird,' she whispered to herself.

Mary and Lily were of the same opinion that evening in their dorm room. The three were currently all cry laughing as they mocked the engagement of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black. It had been the talk of the school that evening, mainly as Lucius was going into his seventh year and Narcissa was going into her fourth. Very creepy.

As they laughter finally died down, Hermione commented, 'I've missed this. Boys are just so confusing sometimes, it's nice to just chat with you two.'

'Us three could create our own version of the Marauders,' Mary joked, and Lily pretended to shiver.

'One group of Marauders is more than enough thanks Mary.'

'I second that,' Hermione added.

'So Mione, did you ever find out if you have a wedding agreement with anyone?' Lily wondered.

'My parents wouldn't tell me,' Hermione frowned. 'Said it was the business of the parents not the child, so I guess that's a yes.'

'Will you go through with it?' Mary asked. Mary was one of the lucky few Purebloods, like James, that did not have to worry about arranged marriages.

'Hell no,' Hermione laughed. 'I'd rather be disowned.'

'Plus, how would she marry Sirius?' Lily said slyly and Hermione began to splutter.

'Oh give it a rest Hermione, we can all tell you and Sirius are destined for each other,' Mary said.

'I can tell no such thing!' Hermione protested, and cursed her heating cheeks for giving her away. Lily and Mary began to laugh.

'That boy is obsessed with you Mione,' Lily said, and Mary nodded along.

'Do you really think so?' Hermione asked, letting her slight insecurity show.

'I promise you,' Lily affirmed.

'Maybe he'll ask you to the Hogsmeade weekend,' Mary squealed, and Hermione could feel her cheeks getting even hotter.

'Would you say yes?' Lily questioned.

'I guess so, just as friends of course,' Hermione said, before hiding her face behind a pillow as the other girls began to squeal again. 'Oh shut up,' Hermione laughed as she threw a pillow as Lily, starting an all-out pillow war.

Despite Hermione maybe possibly a tiny bit getting her hopes up about Sirius asking her to go to Hogsmeade with her, she still looked forward to the trip when he didn't ask her explicitly, with all three of her closest friends… and Peter. The five Marauders had agreed that on their first 'official' trip to Hogsmeade, as of course they had all visited before through the secret passageway, they would try to visit every single shop. Hermione was very excited to see the village during the day time and even more so to not have to be on Sirius's back under an invisibility cloak, despite how comfy it may be. When Hermione had bumped into James that morning in the common room he had informed her that the rest of the boys were all still asleep, and so Hermione decided to head on down to breakfast and meet them at the secret passageway at eleven.

After having a long, chatty breakfast with Lily and Mary, who were going to Hogsmeade by themselves and meeting the Marauders at lunch, Hermione began to amble over to the fourth floor. When she reached the mirror that led to the secret passageway she was a bit early and had to wait for her boys. Hermione had not made much of an effort on her appearance, but was still easily one of the most attractive girls in the school, not that she really cared. Hermione would rather enjoy her time with her friends than spend hours getting ready and miss what was sure to be a good day.

Finally, Hermione saw Remus and James come into view.

'Where's Peter and Sirius?' She asked.

'Ouch Hermione, are we not enough man for you?' James dramatically exclaimed while doing what was not at all a seductive wiggle.

Hermione snorted but turned to look at Remus for an answer. 'Peter just wouldn't wake up and we didn't want to miss everything, and Sirius is actually going with a girl from Ravenclaw. They left at ten.'

At Remus's words Hermione's heart fell into her chest. Sirius had gone with someone else. If it was that Amy girl Hermione didn't think she'd be able to handle it. Hermione was so angry with herself for thinking that Sirius might like her, and even angrier that she'd allowed herself to start to like him, only a tiny bit. Just because they were best friends and their stupid wands shared heart strings didn't mean anything, she scolded herself. She felt stupid, but swallowed the lump in her throat; she would not let this ruin something she had been excited for for years. Even if it was something she and Sirius had planned to do together.

'Oh,' Hermione managed to say. 'Well, let's go you two.' Determinedly linking arms with James and Remus, Hermione began to pull them down the secret passage.

As the three best friends headed into the Three Broomsticks at two pm, Hermione was a lot happier than she had been. They boys had sensed that perhaps Hermione was a bit sad over the whole Sirius situation and so had made sure to make her laugh as much as possible. Hermione viewed the two boys more as brothers than friends and so their presence was a massive comfort to her. Hermione's good mood did begin to drop, however, when they sat down at the table with Lily and Mary who immediately asked about where Sirius was.

'He's erm, actually on a date with a Ravenclaw,' Hermione said hesitantly, worried that her friends would have an over the top reaction.

'WHAT?!' Mary exclaimed as half the pub turned to look at her. 'But what about,' At Hermione's warning glare Mary hesitated slightly before going 'er- Marauder code.' Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, but didn't miss the curious glance she was given by Remus.

'I thought you guys had planned to go together since first year?' Lily asked.

'I know right!' James replied. 'Sirius totally ditched us for that Amy girl.'

Fuck Amy, Hermione thought angrily as she stabbed at her sandwich and ignored the looks of pity she got from Lily and Mary.

After the five had eaten, in quite a sombre mood, the two girls left and the three remaining Marauders were left to continue wandering the village. James was quick to leave as well, running towards the Quidditch shop and knocking over shoppers in his haste.

'And then there were two,' Remus said, nudging Hermione's shoulder with his. 'Come on, we should talk.' Hermione shot him an inquisitive look but followed him anyway, all the way to a tree stump that overlooked the Shrieking Shack. Remus looked at it wryly before sitting on the stump and patting for Hermione to join him.

'So,' Remus said.

'So,' Hermione echoed.

'You like Sirius then?' Hermione flinched, not expecting Remus to be so direct.

'I don't know,' Hermione replied, deciding to just be honest with Remus. Maybe he would be able to offer a boys' view of the situation, and why her heart ached so much. 'We're best friends, and we're always so affectionate. I know that neither of us ever had any comfort as kids so it was nice getting it from each other, but at some point last year it stopped just being comfort and starting being _more_. I don't know if I like him or anything like that, but knowing that he doesn't like me like that hurts Remus.' Hermione's eyes watered slightly as her voice broke but she refused to let the tears fall.

'I think you do know if you like him,' Remus said quietly.

'Admitting it would just make me feel worse.'

Remus nodded in understanding.

'Lily and Mary just got it into my head that he was going to ask me to Hogsmeade is all. And when he didn't I assumed it was cus we wanted it to be a Marauder thing, and I was fine with that. But Sirius going with _someone else_ is just painful. I don't know why it hurts Remus.' Tears had started to fall at this point, and Hermione wiped them away angrily with the back of her hand.

Remus's heart ached for Hermione. It was obvious to everyone except Hermione how Sirius felt about her. Sirius was angry for the rest of the day any time a boy paid Hermione attention, and he would always seek Hermione out with his eyes when he made a joke to see if she laughed, and would tuck her hair behind her ear when she fell asleep on the sofa in the common room. The rest of the Marauders just assumed they would gravitate more and more towards each other, and so when that morning Sirius had told them he was going on a date instead of going with Hermione and the rest of them to Hogsmeade, Remus and James had flinched.

'What about Hermione?' Remus had asked, and despite sadness seeping into Sirius's expression, he had shrugged and left, mumbling about being late.

'Fuck,' James said, and Remus couldn't agree more.

Now, looking at Hermione trying so desperately to keep herself together, Remus felt very protective and a bit angry.

'I know I have no right to be upset. We weren't dating and neither of us had ever hinted we wanted anything more than what we had, it was just a shock this morning. I know Sirius has always had attention from girls, but I just thought he would continue to ignore them and stay with us.'

'I know Hermione, we all did.' Remus said sadly. 'Sirius is an ass. We all promised in first year to go to Hogsmeade together and it's pathetic that he broke that promise. Me and James would never do that, and if Peter wasn't dead to the world I'm sure he wouldn't either.' Hermione laughed slightly at Remus's words about Peter. Nothing could ever come between him and his sleep, including years long promises.

Remus pulled Hermione into his side and wrapped his arm around her waist. Hermione had only ever been affectionate with Sirius, and so while this was weird, Hermione realised she liked it. While Hermione did not get the butterflies she got with Sirius, or the uncertainty in every familiar touch that she found exciting, she did feel completely secure. There was no questioning or searches for unspoken word, just warmth and a chocolately smell that was so completely Remus. Hermione sighed and rested her head against his chest.

'Love you Remus,' she whispered.

'Love you too Mione.'

After a few minutes Hermione lifted her head to look Remus in the eye. 'I wish you were my brother instead of Nial.'

'Don't be stupid Mione, I am your brother.' Remus joked while rolling his eyes. The two friends stood up and went to find James. Despite having been there for over an hour, James was nowhere near done and so Remus and Hermione amused themselves by conjuring ping pong balls and pelting them at James's head to see if he would notice. While James remained blissfully unaware, the shop owner did not. Remus and Hermione would proudly proclaim to anyone who asked for the next five years that they were banned from the Quidditch shop and so would be unable to enter. How unfortunate, Hermione thought with a smirk. The three friends were still laughing about it when they stumbled into the Gryffindor common room later that afternoon.

Sirius stood from his spot on the sofa as they entered. 'What are you guys laughing about?' he asked.

'Nothing,' Hermione replied dismissively, knowing she was being petty but needing that small victory to get over her annoyingly emotive heart.

'Oh right,' Sirius said with a small frown.

'How was your date?' James asked.

'It was bad to be honest, but at least we made out,' Sirius said with a wink. James and Remus looked anxiously at each other while Hermione studied her nails very intently, willing herself to act rational. 'You guys could at least act excited for me, Amy is hot,' Sirius said, confused at the atmosphere.

'Let's just hope you didn't catch something,' Hermione said flippantly. 'You guys go on down to dinner, I'm going to wait for Lily and Mary.'

Remus knew this was Hermione's subtle cry for help, and so he took it. Sirius was practically dragged from the common room, soon followed by James who stopped just long enough to kiss Hermione on the cheek.

A few weeks after Christmas was the full moon, and all the Marauders minus Remus were doing their Defence against the Dark Arts homework. Hermione was particularly concerned about this essay, not because it was hard at all, but because it was an essay on how to identify a werewolf.

Poor Remus.

Hermione had managed to move on from her brief heart ache over Sirius, and they had managed to remain as close as ever, admittedly with a lot less physical contact issued by Hermione. Once again it was just the two of them in the castle over Christmas and Hermione had enjoyed two weeks alone with her best friend without accidentally running into him kissing a random girl in a dark corridor. They decorated another tree in the Forbidden Forest, and went ice skating on the Black Lake, both ending up bruised but happy. While Hermione knew that her butterflies around Sirius weren't going to fade any time soon, she recognised that friendship was a lot more important than holding a grudge.

'Guys,' Sirius's voice pulled Hermione from her musings. 'Is anyone seeing any similarities here between Remus and the symptoms of a werewolf. Please tell me I'm going insane.'

'Oh thank Merlin, I thought I was the only one,' James exhaled in relief. 'I mean, the way I see it, Remus is either a werewolf or a girl.'

Hermione snorted, and the three boys turned to look at her.

'Oh, I was just laughing cus I thought the exact same thing last year when I figured it out.'

'LAST YEAR? Hermione why didn't you say anything?' Sirius cried.

'It's not my secret to tell, it's Remus's.' Hermione replied calmly.

'Do, Do you think he's actually a, a Werewolf?' Peter stammered nervously.

'Catch up Pete,' James joked.

'But, but that makes him dangerous. Shouldn't we tell someone?' Peter continued.

'Peter,' Hermione replied. 'Remus wears slippers every night to dinner. How could you possibly think he was dangerous?' This reply made all three boys laugh, and the tension around the discovery began to wane.

'What should we do?' James asked.

'I vote we just confront him,' Sirius replied. 'Tell him that we don't care, and we wish he would have told us himself.' At the other three's nods the Marauders went back to their homework, none of them really concentrating, too worried about their friend.

Confronting Remus was hard, as the boy had been adamantly denying any claims.

'Remus come on, we won't hate you or whatever, just admit it.' Sirius had pleaded.

'It's not true Sirius, I don't know what you want me to say,' Remus replied angrily.

Hermione sighed, seeing that Remus felt as though he was backed into a corner. Slowly she stood up from her spot by Sirius's side on his bed in the boys common room, and made her way to where Remus was sat on the end of his bed. Remus flinched slightly, but when all Hermione did was sit down on the bed next to him and lean her head on his chest, Remus let out a breath and wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist, pulling her closer to him. They both missed Sirius's scowl, but James didn't, who rolled his eyes.

'Remus,' Hermione started from her position. 'We all love you, you're one of us. We just want you to be honest with us. No rejection I promise.'

Whispering so just Hermione could hear, Remus replied, 'What if they all hate me?'

'We will never hate you Remus,' Hermione whispered back.

'I know you wouldn't,' Remus said, kissing Hermione on the top of her head before he straightened his back and faced the other three boys, noticing the hostility on Sirius's expression. Taking bravery from his pseudo sister, Remus stammered, 'I am a, a you know what.'

'A dickhead?' James asked, making everyone laugh slightly tersely.

'Yeah that, but also a uh. A Werewolf.' When everyone stayed silent Remus was forced to continue. 'I didn't tell anyone because I couldn't believe I'd actually made friends. When Hermione found me on the Hogwarts express it seemed too good to be true. I thought if you knew then everything would be taken away from me.'

'You can't know us very well,' Sirius said, half annoyed and half understanding. 'We'd never do that to you. With Hermione and me in the group we're already pretty fucked up.'

'Yeah,' Hermione agreed, carrying on Sirius's sentence. 'At this point, a werewolf just makes sense.'

'So, you guys don't hate me?' Remus asked hesitantly.

'Not as long as we can set you on Nial,' Sirius joked, and laughed when Remus threw a pillow at him.

'With a name like Remus Lupin you were practically asking to be a werewolf,' Hermione added. 'Your name literally means wolf wolf.' Any residual tension left the room at this point, as the five best friends burst out laughing.

As Winter faded into spring, Hermione felt that life was looking up. She was dealing well with her feelings of jealousy, as Sirius had decided to dive head first into the rumour of him being a player, and as a result her relationships with James, Remus and even Peter were growing.

It was now late May, and in true Marauder fashion, they were planning a prank on the Slytherins. They had decided that enough was enough, and Theon Flint's face was just too annoying to look at a day longer. What better idea, therefore, than to transfigure it into something less annoying like a banshee or something. The group of five were on their way to wait outside the Slytherin common room (location provided by a quite unwilling Regulus) and ambush Theon with a spell Hermione had created herself, and was very proud of. However, McGonagall was on the prowl that day, and in a very unforgiving mood. The four Marauder boys were caught practising the spell on each other, and as magic was strictly forbidden in the hallways, all four were given an all-day detention the next day, a Sunday. Had Hermione not gone to the toilet quickly, she would have been subjected to the massively unfair punishment the next day as well. Praise be to her small bladder.

The next day was looking bleak for Hermione as she headed down to breakfast alone. Mary was spending the day with her Ravenclaw friends, and while Hermione knew she would be welcome with Lily, Snape came as part of that deal and Hermione knew she would end up socking him in the face. Hermione entered the great hall and slid into the bench, taking a seat as far away from other Gryffindors as possible. The years below her were just too titchy and annoyed and the years above too mature and boring. Well, except the Prewett twins, but they would just spend the whole meal badgering Hermione about pranks, which were nobody's business except the Marauders.

Hermione was half way through her pancakes and cup of tea when she felt someone slide into the seat beside her.

'Just great,' she grumbled to herself. However, when she looked up, straight into the grinning and very attractive face of Kit Morrison, her bad mood lifted slightly.

'Hey Hermione,' he smiled, how was he always smiling?

'Kit, you're cheerful for nine am on a Sunday morning.' Hermione commented, but his grin was infectious and she could feel the corners of her mouth twitching slightly.

'Of course I'm cheerful, sweet Mione,' Kit said winking, 'because I have it on good authority that your Marauder friends cannot steal your attention for the day, which means only one thing.'

Hermione raised her eyebrow, 'which would be?'

'You're stuck with me.'

Hermione felt her stomach flutter, not in the same way it did with Sirius, but it was nice to have an attractive, funny guy actually want to spend the day with her instead of _Amy_ or whoever else.

'Gonna show me how Hufflepuffs live Kit?' Hermione teased.

'You can't even handle us Hufflepuffs,' Kit responded, both of them ignoring the curious looks they were receiving from the rest of the room as they laughed.

'I would love to spend the day with you Kit, I'm assuming your two friends are part of the deal?' Hermione asked, referring to Sam and Rob.

'Yeah, those two would be lost without me to lead them through the trials of everyday life. Plus, who am I to keep them from the company of a beautiful, smart girl.'

Hermione blushed at Kit's wink. Damn that boy was smooth. He was always very flirty in Transfiguration, and she loved sitting next to him in that subject, but she hadn't imagined him being so forthcoming in public. It was nice to receive attention like that. All the other boys at school were too scared of the Marauders to come near Hermione.

After breakfast, Hermione and Kit made their way over to Rob and Sam at the Hufflepuff table. Sam was very tall, with red hair and freckles, while Rob was quite short with brown hair that fell into his eyes. However, they both wore cheeky expressions and despite not talking to them much Hermione already felt like they were friends, all three Hufflepuffs just had that sort of personality.

'Hey Hermione,' Rob greeted, 'we hear that Kit finally got the chance to show you a good time.' All four laughed when Kit jokingly hit Rob in the arm.

'So what's on the agenda today?' Hermione asked.

A few hours later saw Hermione sat in an overly large bean bag in the Hufflepuff common room, completely dominating at a game of musical chairs. Hermione had not laughed so much or so hard in such a long time. It had been explained to her that musical chairs was a muggle children's game, but with Rob very badly singing songs, and Kit, Hermione and Sam tackling each other to collapse into the chairs, Hermione really did not care.

Once all four were exhausted, they all sat around lazily, talking about stupid things for hours, anything from Vampires to giants and elves having babies. Suddenly, Kit started having a coughing fit, and Hermione went to rub his back before Rob and Sam exclaimed,

'is that the time?! We have to be somewhere very important!'

'Oh,' Hermione replied. 'Where?'

'Erm, somewhere!' Rob exclaimed, and him and Sam rushed out of the common room. When Hermione looked back to Kit he had completely gotten over his coughing fit. Weird.

'They're an odd bunch aren't they,' Hermione laughed.

'Yeah,' Kit said, blushing slightly and rubbing the back of his neck. Hermione tried not to notice how good his arms looked.

'Do you want me to go?' Hermione asked, realising that they had managed to miss dinner thanks to all the fun they had had that day. It was actually getting quite late, perhaps she had overstayed her welcome, but she was really enjoying hanging out with Kit, and the other two.

'No!' Kit exclaimed quickly, and Hermione laughed.

'Alright, but at least let me get you dinner to say thanks for looking after me today.'

'Mione, dinner ended like two hours ago,' Kit replied, calming down.

'You're forgetting you're with a Marauder dear Kit,' Hermione winked, and Kit grinned a disarming smile.

'Lead the way.'

Two hours later, Hermione and Kit sat down on a window seat in a corridor on the third floor, overlooking the Hogwarts grounds. They were both clutching Hot Chocolates and laughing over nothing, both a bit giddy. Curfew was just over an hour away.

'Maybe you could visit me this summer?' Kit asked, letting his nerves show slightly in his voice.

'Are you a Pureblood?' Hermione asked, and Kit looked a bit affronted.

'No, I'm a Half blood but I thought maybe you didn't really care about that stuff?'

'Kit, you being a half blood just makes you even more attractive.' Hermione joked.

'So you think I'm attractive?' Kit was back to smiling so widely Hermione thought his face might split. Hermione was the same though so she couldn't judge.

'Oh shut up. Kit Morrison, I would love to visit you in the summer. My mother will have heart palpitations; it will be great.' Kit laughed loudly.

'You really hate your family don't you?'

'Have you met my brother?'

'Yeah, Nial is a nasty piece of work isn't he? Just last week he cursed Rob.'

'I'm sorry,' Hermione felt guilty, as if it were her actions not her twin brother's.

'Don't worry, it doesn't put me off you,' Kit winked once more. If he weren't so damn cute he couldn't get away with doing it that often. 'You'll just have to come to mine. I have three younger brothers though, you've been warned.'

'Three brothers?' Hermione exclaimed in mock horror. 'How do you cope?'

'We don't, my poor mother can't wait for them all to get to Hogwarts. Will is the only one already here. He's a pain in the arse first year, but he's my pain in the arse.' Hermione laughed, and felt her tummy fill with warmth. This was so different that talking to Sirius about their families. With Sirius, they were there for each other and could sympathise, but with Kit, it was like Hermione was looking into an alternate universe, one which she really wanted to be a part of.

'I'd love to meet your family Kit,' Hermione responded affectionately.

'Come on,' Kit said, standing and offering his hand to Hermione. 'I'll walk you to your common room.' Once Hermione had stood, Kit didn't let go of her hand.

Once they reached the portrait of the fat lady, Hermione turned to Kit, tears in her eyes from how hard she'd been laughing. 'This is it, the famous Gryffindor entrance.'

'I'm a bit disappointed actually, I thought maybe you'd have to fight a lion.' Kit joked.

Hermione rolled her eyes, but didn't reply, not really sure what she was supposed to do now.

'I had a great day with you today Mione, I'm going to start kidnapping you and forcing you to spend more time with me.'

'I'd like that,' Hermione replied honestly. Suddenly, Kit was leaning in and Hermione felt her heart race. Her first kiss. When his lips met hers, they were tentative at first, but once Kit felt Hermione respond he began to deepen the kiss. Hermione felt warmth all over, his lips were soft and unsure, but Hermione felt her butterflies multiply rapidly as she wrapped her arms around Kit's neck. Kit was a few inches taller than her, and so she had to go on her tiptoes. Kit placed his hands on her lower back, and after what felt like an eternity and no time at all, Kit broke the kiss and stepped back.

'See you later beautiful,' he whispered, and winked before walking away.

'Oh. My. God,' Hermione squealed once he was out of sight.

That night when Hermione lay in bed unable to sleep she thought about Kit. While Kit was a comfortable warmth, Sirius was fire and ice at the same time. Kit made Hermione feel comfortable and secure, while Sirius made her feel like she was at sea. Kit made Hermione laugh from her belly so hard she would cry, but Sirius understood her in a way no one else ever would. Kit aimed to make his family proud, while Sirius wanted to rebel and become his own person. Kit would never break a promise, while Sirius was unreliable and erratic. Sirius was Hermione's best friend that made her heart ache while Kit was a cute Hufflepuff that gave Hermione butterflies.

Suddenly Hermione stopped her train of thought. Why was she comparing Sirius and Kit? Hermione groaned into her pillow, fourth year was going to be hard.


	7. Purebloods against Elf Abuse

**Hi guys! So here is the first chapter of the Marauders fourth year! This is where it will start to get more in detail, and the chapters may be slightly shorter but the time frame is as well. I wrote this on the train to London, and was trying to hide my screen from everyone so they couldn't see what I was writing! Your reviews have been amazing, they really inspire me to keep going so thank you! Hope you enjoy this chapter.**

15th July

Hermione,

Don't forget about that promise you made me! It's only been a couple of weeks but I'm missing your mad musical chairs skills. Rob and Sam are coming over for a few days at the end of July, and I thought maybe you could come for a couple of days as well. Maybe stay a day after they leave? In the mean time I guess I will have to make do with your letters, so I am expecting a prompt reply Hermione Avery! It would be a pleasure to piss off your mother, and my little brother Will may have mentioned me having a crush on the resident hottie at Hogwarts (you) to my parents so now you definitely have to come stay; how else will I prove to my parents that I'm not just a creepy stalker?

In the mean time I hope you enjoy Italy. I've only ever been once and it was the Wizarding Quarter in Florence. I'd love to see all the muggle sites though so I hope you get the chance so you can tell me all about them. Although, I guess with your family that's not very likely. My family isn't going on holiday this year, we're a bit tight on money. But dad did surprise us with a few Quidditch posts, and since we live in the middle of nowhere we will be able to have a lot of fun using them without having to worry about scaring any locals.

Reply soon beautiful,

Kit

19th July

Kit,

A promise is a promise! I haven't asked my mother yet, but I'll find a way to get to yours don't worry! You're too kind to me, I don't know what I did to get all these compliments but I'm not complaining.

I'm very excited for Italy, and hopeful that Nial will not be an ass for the entire holiday. We can dream at least. I highly doubt we will be allowed to go into muggle Italy, but I wouldn't be a Marauder if I couldn't find a way to sneak out on my own, so I will gladly tell you about the muggle parts! If you're bored this summer I recommend muggle fiction, it's really good. Much better than wizarding rubbish. I can send a few books if you'd like? I'm sending some to Remus anyway so it's no extra hassle. My elf Tiny is very good at covert missions.

I'll try to write often but I'm not sure how busy we will be,

Hermione

23rd July

Mione, I am so bored! Get back from Italy already. I have had the best idea, you and me are going to sneak into Muggle London. I heard they have these moving pictures that tell a story and I want in on it. I'm gonna try and bring Reggie with us but he's so far up Walburga's ass right now that I don't know if he will come. Don't invite Nial, as if you would. I'm not inviting any of the other Marauders, I need my own time with you. Remember when we used to hang out just the two of us? Hiding under tables and making fun of the arseholes at all the functions. Is it crazy that I kind of miss it now that we're not allowed to go to those things anymore? Let's promise that this year we'll do more stuff just the two of us yeah?

Your best friend, and the most awesome person in the world,

Lord Sirius Orion Black

24th July

Sirius, Lord of the most horrible and creepy house of Black,

We both know it's not my fault we haven't been spending time together this last year, you're the one that's too busy with random girls to spend time with us lowly Marauders. But if this is you renouncing your ways I will gladly forgive you, only because I really do miss my best friend. I'm supposed to be meeting Kit when I get back from Italy, but I suppose I could just say mum wouldn't let me go.

Also, I think I have finally found a way for us to help Remus. I spent the first couple weeks in the family library and it hit me in the head… literally. Nial threw the book at me. Anyway, what do you know about Animagi? It's where people can turn into animals at will, and werewolf bites don't affect animals. The process would be really hard, but I recon it's worth it for Remus. Unless we turn into fish or something. What do you think? Having a leaf in our mouths and being unable to talk for a month could be fun right? We could do a sponsored silence. At least it's a month of not having to listen to Peter.

Your bezzie pal,

Mione

Hermione made her way down the Hogwarts express, trying her best to avoid anyone in a Hufflepuff uniform. Kit had been upset when she hadn't been able to come stay, and demanded she spend time with him on the train to school. Normally, Hermione wouldn't have minded going to see him, but Sirius had acquired four mandrake leaves and Hermione was eager to explain her animagus idea to her boys and start the process of that journey. Hermione knew it could take years and wanted to help Remus as soon as possible, cute Hufflepuff boys be damned.

Hermione knew that perhaps one of the reasons she wasn't going to see Kit had to do with seeing a certain boy and she did feel slightly guilty about it. Sirius just had a special place in her heart, and as willing as Hermione was to spend time with Kit and see what happens, Sirius would always come first to her; even if she didn't always come first to him anymore. Hermione knew that if she ever needed him Sirius would drop everything, but that wasn't always the comfort Hermione needed it to be anymore. Hermione knew that this year she would need to get over her feelings for Sirius as they were obviously unrequited, but it was easier said than done.

Hermione decided as she reached the Marauders compartment that this year she would throw herself into new relationships with people like Kit and his friends Rob and Sam.

Hermione pulled open the door to the carriage and beamed at her boys.

'Mione!' Sirius exclaimed, getting up to pull Hermione into a bear hug and resting his chin on her head.

'Fuck,' Hermione thought to herself as she inhaled the unique smell of Sirius.

Soon enough the greetings were over with, Hermione had even hugged Peter as part of her promise to build on other non-Sirius relationships.

'So Mione,' Sirius started, with his arm wrapped around her shoulders. 'Recon we should fill the others in on your brilliant plan?'

'What plan?' James asked, leaning forward in his seat in obvious excitement.

'Operation Furry Little Problem,' Sirius said smirking. 'The name was my idea.'

Hermione rolled her eyes at Remus, who looked part amused and part nervous.

'So basically,' Hermione began. 'I had a book thrown at me this summer and it turned out to be the knock in the head I needed to come up with an idea to help our Remus here during his er _monthly problem_.' James and Sirius snickered. 'The book was a book about Animagi.'

'Brilliant,' James whispered, excited.

'What's that?' Peter asked.

'Well Pete,' Sirius replied. 'Animagi are people that can turn into animals at will. Mione here realised that Werewolf bites don't affect animals, so if we could turn into them then Remus wouldn't have to be alone when he transforms.'

'No, absolutely not,' Remus butted in.

'Remus come on,' James said. 'It's brilliant, and completely safe!'

'How is it safe?' Remus cried. 'I'm not allowing it. I'm too dangerous. I literally lose my mind when I transform. I would have no idea who any of you are, and I could seriously injure, even kill you. Not to mention that becoming unregistered animagi is completely illegal.'

'Even better,' Hermione interjected with a wink.

'Hermione this is not funny! I won't let any of you get arrested just to help me with something I've been dealing with alone already for eleven years now.'

'No Remus, you listen to me. You have absolutely no say in whether we go through with this. Now, either you can shut up and be a part of this with us or you can get out of this compartment until we have finished discussing the plan.'

Remus crossed his arms and looked out of the window angrily, but did not say anymore. Hermione knew that his fear of losing friends would keep him here but she didn't feel guilty, they were doing this for him after all.

'Now,' Hermione said. 'The process of becoming animagi can take years, and some people can never achieve it. I think, however, that we'll all get it quickly, cus we have a reason for wanting to do it. The process is so weird though. We need to keep a mandrake leaf in our mouths for a month, which means no talking. Then we need to brew a potion and say a spell. After that, it's all about meditation and figuring out what our animal is. Soon as we figure that out we should be able to transform… in theory.'

'No talking for a month? How will Sirius get girls to make out with him,' James joked, and Hermione rolled her eyes.

'He usually manages just fine.'

'We need a reason for not talking,' Sirius interjected, trying to change the conversation away from him and other girls. For some reason, talking about it around Hermione created a weird pit in his stomach.

'What about protesting homework?' Peter suggested.

'I don't think that would work,' James replied. 'They'd just call us stupid and force us to speak.'

'It needs to be believable,' Sirius agreed, and they all fell into silence.

'I've got it,' Hermione suddenly said with her eyes glinting. 'Everyone knows I say thank you to house elves, and I have that picture of me and Tiny up in my room. We'll say we're protesting the rights of house elves!'

Sirius and James burst out laughing and high fived each other, and even Remus was smiling slightly.

Sirius pulled Hermione closer into him, squeezing her. 'It's perfect Mione.'

'Right everyone,' Hermione said. 'Leaves in mouths please. Remus, you'll have to be our spokesperson.'

'Wait,' Remus replied. 'Why do I say I'm not doing it?'

'Erm, we'll call it Purebloods against elf abuse. You're a half blood so while you have joined in spirit, you aren't under the same obligations.' Sirius said with a wink, thinking on his feet.

Remus laughed, 'Right, okay.'

Once the other four had their leaves, they simultaneously put them into their mouths and all pulled faces at the foul taste.

'McGonagall is going to kill you guys,' Remus snickered. Sirius made a weird noise back, causing the whole group to laugh slightly oddly as they tried to keep their mouths closed.

At that moment, Kit stuck his head around the door.

'Hey guys. Mione, Sam and Rob miss you, are you coming?' Kit was looking very adorable, and Hermione smiled at him, she had missed the lovable Hufflepuff. Hermione pointed at Remus and Kit turned to look at him, with weird looks at the silent group.

Remus sighed. 'Hermione would like you to know that those four have started a protest group called Purebloods against elf abuse.' Kit's smile grew at this in amusement. 'They will be doing a silent protest for the next month and so are unable to talk.' Kit burst out laughing at this.

'You guys are a very weird bunch you know that? Your cause is admirable, but Hermione you still have to come with me for a few minutes to say hi to Sam and Rob. They have big news.' Hermione grinned at him and stood up, away from Sirius, and Kit immediately pulled her into a hug.

Kit whispered to Hermione, 'So this silence, does it mean I can't kiss you either?' Hermione blushed, but nodded her head, it would taste horrible for Kit. The whole compartment heard Kit's whisper and James, Remus and Peter laughed quietly, however, Sirius scowled deeply and glared at Kit.

'Stupid Hufflepuff pervert,' Sirius thought angrily.

Hermione followed Kit out of their compartment and down the train. Kit looked over at her, and smirked.

'Do it for Tiny yeah?' he asked, and Hermione smiled back at him. This no talking thing was harder than she thought. Hermione gave him a thumbs up. Kit stopped suddenly, and kissed Hermione on the cheek before opening a compartment door holding Sam and Rob. Hermione blushed, but her thoughts stopped when she saw that Sam and Rob were holding hands. It was all Hermione could do to stop her mouth from dropping open.

'Hermione!' Sam called.

'She's doing a silent protest at the minute actually, so she can't reply,' Kit explained, causing Sam and Rob to snort.

'What a Marauder thing to do,' Rob replied, and Hermione winked at him. Hermione then looked pointedly at their intertwined hands.

'Oh yeah,' Kit said. 'These two finally got their heads out of the sand and realised they're perfect for each other.' Hermione made a slight squealy noise before rushing forward and hugging the two boys. She gave them both a thumbs up, hoping to show how happy she was for them without words.

'I take it that means you approve?' Rob asked, laughing slightly at Hermione's furious nod.

Hermione was so happy for Rob and Sam. On the fateful day where Hermione had spent the day with the three Hufflepuffs she could sense there was more to the friendship between Rob and Sam, and had brought it up to Kit. Kit had agreed with her and said that he was certain his two best friends wanted more, but that neither had come out yet. It was such a difficult position, but Hermione thought Sam and Rob were so lucky to have a best friend like Kit who would be so supportive should they confess their feelings to each other. Hermione wandered what had happened over the summer that had gotten the two boys to admit their feelings, but knew she'd have to wait over a month to ask for the details.

Soon enough, Hermione pointed towards the door to indicate she was going to go back to her compartment. She was yet to change and the train had nearly arrived at Hogsmeade. Hermione nodded when Kit asked her to spend more time with him this year, and then made her way back to the Marauder compartment.

The compartment was the quietest it had ever been when she entered, with Remus and Peter watching James and Sirius stare at each other. Hermione shot a questioning look at Remus.

'They're having a staring competition. First to blink loses.' Remus explained. 'It's been like two minutes; I have no idea how they're doing it.' Hermione rolled her eyes, James and Sirius were both ferociously competitive, and Hermione knew that they would literally defy biology if it meant winning. Suddenly, Sirius blew on James, causing him to blink out of shock. Sirius raised his arms in the air as if to celebrate, and James tackled him to the floor. Hermione had to pull her feet up under her on the seat as the two boys scrapped on the floor. None of them even bothered trying to stop the two, Hermione felt that without words this would be becoming a regular occurrence.

Soon enough, the train was pulling into Hogsmeade station and the five friends got into a carriage to go up to school. Before they could leave, however, Mary, Lily and, unfortunately, Snape, clambered on as well. All five immediately scowled at the provocative Slytherin.

'Be nice,' Lily snapped, and Hermione tried her best to school her features to that of indifference. Snape was good friends with Nial, and as such was often involved in their attempts to pick on Hermione. Hermione had never told Lily of Snape's involvement, not for his sake but for Lily's. Hermione knew Lily would be crushed if she knew that Snape was picking on Hermione, and Hermione also knew she could fight her own battles. Unfortunately, Snape did not have the same qualms about not telling Lily, and so if any of the Marauders retaliated Lily was the first to know about it. Hence the anger the Marauders felt towards Snape.

There was an uncomfortable silence in the carriage before Mary broke it. 'Hermione, I missed you! How was your summer.' Hermione grimaced and gave a thumbs up. When Mary frowned in confusion at the lack of response, Hermione once again pointed towards Remus.

'This is going to get old very quickly,' Remus said under his breath, but was unable to really be annoyed. After all, they were doing this for him. 'These four dunderheads have decided to do a silent protest.' Lily and Mary burst out laughing, and Snape sneered at the group.

'What a lovely idea,' Snape drawled sarcastically.

'Be nice Sev,' Lily scolded. 'What's the protest for?'

'Their group is called 'Purebloods against Elf abuse'. They are protesting the cruel treatment of house elves, and will be doing this silence for a month.'

'A month?' Mary asked in shock. 'That's physically impossible!'

'Think of all the work we'll get done,' Lily joked, ignoring a wink sent her way by James.

'Imagine McGonagall's face when she finds out!' Mary said, laughing.

The five Marauders all flinched, as they got closer to the castle they were getting slightly worried about their strict head of house's reaction.

The five were fine all the way through the welcoming feast, despite most of the hall shooting wary glances in their direction. They all assumed that because the infamous group was being quiet, they must be planning something. Anyone that made eye contact would immediately look away, and the group was having a lot of fun giving evil grins to everyone. The suspense in the hall was so great that when the meal ended most of the occupants fled the room as quickly as possible. Hermione and James high fived, grinning at the chaos they'd managed to create by just being quiet.

It wasn't until the next morning when the group was handed their timetables that Hermione began to feel nervous, all of the Marauders had Transfiguration first that morning. Sirius looked at Hermione and gulped audibly. Hermione nodded in reply, worry evident in her eyes.

'Right,' Remus said as they slowly made their way to their first class. 'We are the Marauders and we will act as such. Big smiles, like nothing fazes us, and Hermione if she asked I'm saying it was your idea.' Hermione's eyes widened and she gestured at Remus. 'Sorry Mione, I'm going to have to take your silence as an agreement.' Hermione scowled at him, her eyes promising pain.

James placed his hand on Hermione and Sirius's shoulder, and they all looked each other in the eyes as if to say good luck.

As they all took their seats, Hermione was praying to any deity that would listen that they would be okay. Hopefully, Hermione thought, they were all over reacting and maybe McGonagall wouldn't even notice. Or maybe she would think it was a noble cause. When McGonagall entered the room Hermione grabbed James and Sirius's hands under the table.

'Right class,' McGonagall started. 'It's been a long summer, so today we will just recap the spells from last year.' The Professor began to pick on people randomly to answer questions and Hermione gulped, feeling her heart pound.

'You're over reacting,' Hermione chanted to herself as a mantra.

'Mr Potter,' Hermione heard, and felt James's hand in hers tighten. 'What is the spell used to transfigure an animal into a goblet?' Hermione could hear Kit softly laughing from the seat behind her and turned to glare at him. He winked.

'It's okay if you don't know, just take a guess.' James stayed silent, but glared at Remus. 'Mr Potter, Mr Lupin will not tell you the answer. This is a first year spell, I expected better from you. Mr Black, perhaps you can help your friend?' Sirius stared back at her blankly. Hermione snorted, more out of pent up nerves than because the situation was funny. 'Is something funny Miss Avery?' Hermione shook her head and pointed at Remus, who looked back at Hermione with panic.

'Mr Lupin, if you do not shed some light on your friend's insolence, I will be forced to put the lot of you into detention.'

'Well you see, Professor. It's, It's a political protest.' Remus cringed.

Professor McGonagall rubbed her temples before replying. 'A political protest?'

'You see, Sir, I mean Mam, they've decided to do a one-month silent protest.' At this, the rest of the class broke out into giggles and whispers.

'Silence,' McGonagall snapped, and the room fell silent once more. 'What exactly would this political protest be?'

'Purebloods against Elf abuse mam,' Remus replied. Hermione kicked Remus, who sighed. 'Hermione would like it to be known that one of her closest friends is an elf, and she is frankly disgusted at the treatment they are sometimes subjected to.'

'This is your doing then, Miss Avery?' McGonagall questions, and Hermione nodded, making eye contact. 'All of you, get out of my class, I will be talking to Professor Dumbledore.' The five gaped at her. 'OUT. NOW.' Hermione, James, Sirius and Peter scuttled from the room. 'You as well Mr Lupin. I want all of you out of my sight.'

The door slammed behind Remus as he left the room.

'Well that went well,' Remus said. The other four all stared at each other, wide eyed.

That evening at dinner, the group of five all kept to themselves, eating dinner and trying to avoid the glare coming from the teachers table.

As the dessert was appearing on the table, Professor Dumbledore stood up and the room immediately fell silent. Dumbledore never made speeches mid-week. The Marauders all looked at each other, this couldn't be good. Publicly expelled? Surely not.

'Thank you for your prompt attention students. I'm sorry to interrupt such a marvellous dinner, the house elves have out done themselves.' Dumbledore proclaimed, and Hermione swore he winked in their direction. 'It has come to my attention that a group of young students have taken it upon themselves to stand up for their social beliefs. I believe that this is commendable and I wished to inform the rest of the school.' The Marauders all stared at him. 'The young group I'm sure you all know of, the Marauders as they call themselves, have decided to protest the cruel treatment of house elves.' Hermione grinned and waved at her brother Nial, who was looking at her with a murderous expression. 'Standing up for your beliefs is hard, especially when knowing you will face opposition. It is therefore extremely brave of this group to do a silent protest, and I would like the whole school to join me in applauding their bravery and passion for standing up for what they believe is right.' At that Dumbledore broke into applause, and Hermione saw Kit, Sam and Rob immediately join in, Kit letting out a loud whistle. Soon the whole room was applauding with bemused expressions on their face. Everyone, that is, except the Slytherin table. Hermione was pulled to her feet by Sirius, and the Marauders bowed to the rest of the school.


	8. Hermione's fiancé

**This chapter was pretty hard to write to be honest, but I'm quite happy with the outcome. The next chapter is going to be a big one, Hermione/ Sirius wise. I've had it planned from before I started the story, but it might not be what you guys think it will be. Your reviews are amazing still! Thank you and keep them coming! I had a great time in London, I met a couple you-tubers in an ice cream shop which was beyond cool, and of course, my annual pilgrimage to Kings Cross! I hope you guys like this chapter, it answers a couple of questions and there's a tiny bit of fluff, yay!**

The five best friends collapsed onto beds in the boy's dorm room. It had been three weeks by this point that the group weren't able to talk due to the mandrake leaves in their mouths. Hermione had no idea how it managed to still taste as bad as the day she first put it in, but could only thank Merlin for Remus and his teeth cleaning spell. The five were completely exhausted, it seemed that Professor Dumbledore had decided to inflict his own kind of punishment by actually making the Marauders protest for elf rights. They had spent the entire of their Saturday handing out badges in the court yard. Sirius had been simply winking at girls as they passed in order to hand off his allotted number of badges, and Hermione had been so irritated that she had begun to coerce the male population with alluring smiles and a batting of her eyelashes. James, Remus and Peter had felt so awkward during this seeming flirting battle that they ended up just giving their badges to the two and letting them get on with it.

Despite their unspoken competition, Hermione was still dutifully in her place on Sirius's bed with his arm wrapped around her. As she cuddled in slightly she observed her three friends on their respective beds, James and Peter joking around by throwing chocolate at Remus. The five had taken to writing each other notes, although more often than not the person the insult (because let's be real that's all they usually said to each other) was intended for just burnt the parchment instead of reading it. Hermione suddenly felt Sirius squeeze her slightly tighter to get her attention. When she looked over he showed her that he was about to write her something on a piece of a parchment. Hermione nodded her head.

'I didn't see Kit when we were handing out badges,' Sirius had put.

'yeah me neither,' Hermione replied, confused as to why Sirius was bringing up a guy she thought he didn't like.

'Aren't you guys a thing?' Sirius wrote, and Hermione looked at him. Sirius looked genuine, if not slightly resigned, the expression confusing Hermione slightly. Why would her and Kit being a thing illicit that expression. Sirius had made it very clear that he was not interested in her.

'I don't know,' Hermione wrote, thinking she may as well be honest. 'We've kissed a few times but he's never asked me to be his girlfriend; if he did I think I'd say no.'

'That's good.' Hermione looked at Sirius when she saw what he had replied with, a questioning look on her face. Sirius just shrugged, but maintained eye contact. Hermione was struck by his eye colour, the usually steely grey always seemed more silver when he was looking at her, and Hermione didn't think she'd ever seen eyes more beautiful than his. Sirius didn't often show expression on his face, it was the one pureblood trait Hermione wished she had also inherited; she always gave away too much by her facial expressions, but when he was looking at her Hermione could see the tenderness and peace he felt by being near her. Hermione was suddenly very aware of how close the two were, she could smell his familiar scent of smoke and spice; the same one he had had since they met when they were ten years old. The smell brought back memories from when they were younger and they would pinkie promise to stay best friends forever, Hermione wished it were still that simple. That they were hiding under a table talking about how amazing Hogwarts would be, and dreaming of a future where they were in complete control of their thoughts and feelings. No matter what though, they would always be best friends, she just knew it. Sirius's lips curled up very slightly into a small smile, and Hermione replicated him. Hermione was just thinking about what it was feel like if she leaned in and let their lips meet, of how soft it would be at first before the pressure built as they both gave in to feelings they'd be harbouring for years; and knew Sirius was thinking the same thing, when a piece of chocolate hit her in the back of the head.

Hermione and Sirius both turned to look, the moment broken, and saw that while they had been in their own little bubble James and Peter had managed to pin Remus to the ground and were stuffing chocolate bars into his mouth. The two boys were trying their absolute hardest to keep from laughing too hard, while Hermione could just make out Remus's muffled screams.

Hermione groaned and buried her face into Sirius's chest, feeling the vibrations of his laughter throughout her body.

Soon enough, the next week was up and the four human Marauders were able to remove the disgusting leaves from their mouths.

'Thank Merlin,' was the first phrase to come from Peter's mouth, and the other three thoroughly agreed. Remus looked quite smug at not having to be a part of it all. The five friends were currently in the come and go room, as a week previously the Prewett Twins had decided to pass its location on. They believed it was their duty as they only had one year left at Hogwarts after that year, and who better to tell than the infamous Marauders. Hermione was very excited to see what the room had to offer, but for now it was the perfect place to brew the potion they would need and to meditate and achieve their animagus forms.

Hermione collapsed onto a red sofa the room provided, resting her head in Sirius's lap as the others sat down on bean bag chairs. The chairs brought back fond memories of Hermione's Hufflepuff friends, she missed Kit, Rob and Sam, Kit especially, but she had been telling the truth when she said she didn't want to be Kit's girlfriend. Hermione knew that while her heart was elsewhere it was completely unfair on Kit, and both seemed happy with their arrangement at that moment.

'We're free!' James cried, making Hermione return to the present. 'I vote we disband our organisation so Dumbledore can't make us hand out more bloody badges.'

'Yeah,' Remus agreed. 'That speech we had to do in front of the school at dinner was so embarrassing.'

Hermione snorted at that. 'You mean the one where I did all the talking and you four just stood there nodding?'

'Yeah that one,' Sirius replied, looking down at her and winking. Hermione's heart did a little flip flop.

'The best part of all this was definitely McGonagall's face every time we were supposed to practise a spell and you guys would all just sit there,' Remus said, and the group laughed. Professor McGonagall had looked close to murdering one or possibly all of them, but thanks to Dumbledore there was nothing she could do.

'Yeah, it's a shame we'll actually have to do work now,' James half joked.

'Speaking of work,' Hermione said while sitting up. The four boys groaned. 'The sooner we start this potion the sooner it will be over. We've all spit the leaves into the cauldron, gross by the way, but that means that when we drink the potion we'll all be linked because we have each other's leaves in it, which is pretty cool.'

'Ew, Peter spit.' James crinkled his nose.

'I vote Remus is in charge of this one,' Sirius interjected. 'He didn't have to have a leaf in his mouth for a month, plus he's the best at potions.'

'I didn't ask you guys to do this,' Remus shot back defensively.

'Get over it Remus,' James replied. 'You're the only one we can trust to not cock this up anyway.'

'Hermione's better than me at potions though!' Remus exclaimed indignantly.

'I'm easily distracted though and this takes like two weeks to make,' Hermione argued slightly smugly.

'I hate you guys,' Remus grumbled.

'We love you too Remus,' Sirius replied in a high pitched voice, before blowing kisses in his direction.

Two weeks and fourteen spell chants each later, and the five Marauders stood in a huddle around a bubbling potion.

'Okay,' Sirius said. 'That looks like it's going to taste even worse than the leaf.' Hermione swallowed harshly and nodded, and Peter looked quite green, pinching his nose due to the fowl smell.

'We, we have to finish it all, or the potion won't work. No throwing up or anything.' Hermione said shakily.

'Sucks to be you guys,' Remus joked, before James punched him in the arm. 'Ow.' It was well past curfew at this point as the potion had to be drunk at midnight, and the five were all pretty tired but eager to move on to the cool part of the animagus transformation.

'Let's just get it over with,' Hermione sighed as she distributed the potion into four even amounts. Once all the goblets were handed out Hermione raised her goblet before downing it in one; the others following suit. Hermione immediately began to gag, and in the corner of her eye could see Peter dry heaving. The potion tasted absolutely horrible. You could clearly make out the taste of the mandrake leaf, but it tasted more as though it were rotting, and that someone had added slugs or something. Actually, slugs were one of the ingredients. The taste lingered in Hermione's mouth, despite the copious amounts of pumpkin juice she was drinking; they had gotten a crate of the juice earlier in preparation for this.

'The taste won't go,' James croaked, before drinking more. Sirius was simply lying on the ground with his eyes closed. Hermione could see that he was mouthing something over and over, and when she looked closer she could see that he was saying 'Doing it for Remus.' Hermione's heart melted at this; it was clear that Sirius valued friendship above all else.

It took another fifteen minutes before the foul taste began to leave their mouths, and Remus looked up from the book he was reading to ask 'all done?' Sirius growled at him.

'I wanted to die,' Peter squeaked. Hermione rolled her eyes at his hyperbole but nodded along all the same. That was awful.

'Let's just go to bed, tomorrow we can start the meditation.' Hermione said weakly, and they all began to traipse out of the Room of Requirement yawning.

The group was forced to crouch behind a pillar as Filtch walked past, and Sirius whispered to Hermione, 'We should create a map or something, that shows if people are coming our way.'

'One thing at a time Siri,' Hermione whispered back around a yawn.

The next few months were extremely frustrating for all five of the Marauders. Almost every day they would wait until after curfew and sneak off to the Room of Requirement, only to seemingly get absolutely nowhere. Hermione had known it could take years, but the reality of the situation was a lot more frustrating; made even more poignant when Remus was unable to accompany them due to the full moon.

Surprisingly, it was Sirius that kept the group going. He was unfailingly optimistic as he knew that it would all be worth it in the end, and he had absolute faith in all of his friends; they were family he got to choose so how could he not believe in them?

It was nearly the Christmas holiday now, and Mary and Lily were wandering the halls of the castle aimlessly chatting the Sunday away.

'James Potter is cute right?' Mary said, smirking at Lily slightly.

'Ew no. He's so arrogant, and always winking at me,' Lily shuddered, but Mary could see a slight blush on her cheeks.

'He's so lovely to Hermione though, like a brother, don't you think that's attractive?' Mary goaded, testing to see if her theory about Lily fancying James Potter was correct.

'I mean, I guess that is quite cute,' Lily admitted. 'But he only ever calls me Evans, and he's horrible to Sev, so no thank you. You go for it though.'

'Lily,' Mary said cautiously. 'Do you ever think that maybe they have a reason to be mean to Severus?'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, Severus always starts stuff with the Marauders, they just rise to the bait. Like that time you hexed James for tripping up Severus, you didn't hear that just before that he had been saying loudly to Nial that he would be humiliated to have a sister like Hermione.' Mary gently explained, knowing how protective of Snape Lily was.

'What?' Lily asked, eyes wide as she came to a stop and faced Mary. 'I don't believe that.'

'I know it's hard Lily, you and him have been best friends for so long. But sometimes the people you meet change when they mix with the wrong crowd. And even you have to admit Nial, Theon and Miles are the wrong crowd.'

'Sev would never do something he knew would upset me,' Lily said, but Mary could hear her voice wavering slightly.

'How about this,' Mary sighed. 'Next time you see the Marauders doing something to Severus just hear them out. You know Hermione would never want to upset you and even she sometimes loses it with him.'

'I suppose I could do that,' Lily resigned. 'Speak of the devil.'

At that moment Nial, Theon, Miles and Snape rounded the corner and headed towards the two Gryffindors, chatting amongst themselves until they noticed the two girls.

'Lily,' Snape asked as the group came to a stop. 'Are we still meeting in half an hour at the Library?'

'Of course Sev,' Lily replied, her eyes darting nervously to the other Slytherins.

'Then we may as well just go now, it takes twenty minutes to walk there from here anyway.' Lily and Mary noticed Theon, Miles and Nial scowling at the interaction, but they thankfully remained silent.

'Sure, I just need to walk Mary back to the Gryffindor common room first,' Lily grabbed Mary's hand and began to pull her away quickly, but Snape grabbed Lily's arm, preventing the two from leaving.

'Mary is a big girl. I'm sure she will be fine.' Snape drawled, pushing his hair away from his face.

Lily swallowed. She trusted Sev of course, but his friends really gave her the creeps and she didn't want to leave Mary alone with them. Lily knew she couldn't say this out loud to Severus however, and really didn't see any other options but to go with him. Lily was slightly cautious due to the conversation she and Mary had just had, could she really have just been blind to Severus's actions? Severus was her best friend, however, and Lily wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

'Um, okay. See you this evening Mary,' Lily said with an apologetic look on her face, before Snape tugged on her arm and led her away towards the Library.

Mary nodded and watched Lily go nervously before determinedly striding down the hall, trying not to show her apprehension. She would have to pass the three Slytherin boys to get to the common room, but hoped they would just leave her alone. Once she got past them she let out a breath, but froze when she heard her name being called. Looking around, she could see that it was Nial that had called for her.

'What do you want Avery?' Mary asked, trying to sound brave.

'To talk,' Nial stated. 'I'll meet you guys outside,' he added to Miles and Theon, who nodded and walked away.

'Okay,' Mary thought to herself. 'One on one, my odds are looking up.'

Out loud she said, 'what about?'

'My sister.'

'What of her?' Mary was immediately defensive. As far as she was concerned Hermione was none of his business, twin or no twin.

'I just wanted to know how she is,' Nial sighed, rubbing his neck.

'Why don't you ask her yourself,' Mary shot back.

'You know why Macdonald; she won't talk to me.'

'Then what makes you think I will.'

'You already are aren't you?' Nial said, his expression smug.

'And I'm done, excuse me.' Mary tried to move past Nial once more but he grabbed her arm tightly.

'Just tell me how she is!' Nial cried, his anger building.

'Why do you even care? You're horrible to her. _We_ all had to pick the pieces up after _you_ threw her down the stairs.' Mary was getting angry as well now. Gryffindors were notoriously defensive of their friends, and Hermione had been through a lot thanks to Nial.

'That was an accident,' Nial whispered, and Mary thought she saw a glimpse of regret on his face. Mary really wanted to leave this situation as it was becoming seriously uncomfortable for her. She decided it would just be easier to briefly tell Nial how Hermione was, if this was him beginning to realise that he wanted a relationship with his sister she knew Hermione would be thrilled, despite how slim the chances of that being the case were. No matter what he did, Mary knew Hermione would always give him another chance. It just seemed weird that he suddenly cared after so many years.

'I don't believe that for a second Avery, but okay. There's nothing to know about her. She is still the complete opposite of your family. She is kind and funny and not a creep.'

'Macdonald-'

'Fine! Hermione is fine, she and the Marauders are unbearable, she's beating you in classes, she's as close as ever with Sirius, she-'

'Is she dating Sirius?' Nial interrupted, and Mary could tell this was the information he had actually been seeking. It would have been weird for him to just ask her straight away, and he knew Mary was more likely to tell him if she thought he wanted to be close to Hermione again.

'So what if she is?' Mary asked, confused about his reaction. He knew they were best friends, they had been for four and a half years now, so them dating was not much of a leap. In fact, it was quite obviously what was going to one day happen, in Mary and every other person with eyes' opinion.

'She can't,' Nial seemed panicked.

'Why the hell not?'

'Because she's engaged to Theon.' Mary's mind went blank.

'What?'

'She's engaged to Theon,' Nial repeated.

'Flint?' Mary clarified.

'Yes,' Nial said curtly. 'It's a great opportunity for the Flint family and will ensure a pureblood lineage.' Nial rattled off as if he had rehearsed it.

'Does Hermione know about this?'

'No, mother and father are going to tell her this summer.'

'Flint is horrible to Hermione though?' Mary was genuinely confused.

'Hermione has no sense of what is best for her, and Theon, as the future head of her house, is entitled to whatever method of discipline he sees fit.' Nial replied tersely.

'There is no way in hell Hermione will be marrying any of your scummy friends.' Mary retorted, unable to believe it was real.

'Your opinion has nothing to do with this Macdonald,' Nial spat.

'It has nothing to do with you either!' Mary cried indignantly. 'Who Hermione marries or dates or whatever the fuck is none of your business!'

'It has everything to do with me,' Nial shouted back. 'I am the man of the house here at Hogwarts and it was my duty to suggest and smooth along an alliance for her.'

'What the fuck is happening?' Mary whispered to herself, rubbing her temples.

'Just make sure that Hermione stays away from Black,' Nial spat.

'Like hell I will,' Mary replied.

Suddenly, Nial pushed Mary up against the wall of the corridor. 'Don't fucking try me Macdonald. You have no idea what I am capable of.'

'Oh I'm so scared,' Mary hissed sarcastically, despite actually being pretty scared.

'You really want to be quiet.' Nial whispered.

'Get your filthy hands off of me Avery,' Mary was beginning to freak out a bit now.

'Shut up.'

'You're psychotic, let me go right now. Hermione is going to kill you.' Mary was desperately looking for a way to get away. There was something seriously wrong with Nial, Mary didn't know how it had taken her this many years to notice it. His face was manic, and it was like a switch had gone off causing him to become some sort of monster. Mary suddenly understood why he had said that she had no idea what he was capable of. Mary didn't think Nial even knew what he was capable of. Like a stone settling in her stomach, she suddenly felt as though she was going to find out.

'SHUT UP!' Nial screamed in her face, completely losing his cool. Magic was crackling around him and Mary suddenly felt very cold.

'HELP!' Mary shouted desperately, very frightened now. She was unable to reach her wand due to how Nial had her pinned and she felt completely helpless. It was so weird to stare into his eyes, that were identical to Hermione's, and have such darkness and pain in their depths. 'SOMEONE HELP!'

'I warned you to shut up!' Nial cried, tears rolling down his cheeks. 'DIFFINDO.' Mary was dropped to the floor as Nial ran away, and could feel deep lacerations forming in her chest. She vaguely recognised the spell as the severing charm before darkness consumed her.


	9. Never good enough

**Here's the new chapter! I haven't been able to write for the last two weeks because I have been moving. It is one of the most stressful things I have ever done, and I have to do it again in a week. Whenever I felt overwhelmed and unable to write I would read your reviews and it would keep me going so thank you so much for those! So much love for you guys. I tried to make this chapter come out like it did in my imagination, and I hope you guys like it. I have also been compiling a playlist of songs that go with this story, and I thought I could recommend a song per chapter. The first song is Not Today by Imagine Dragons; I think it really fits with this chapter. Anyway, enjoy and please review!**

Mary was in a coma for several months after the attack by Nial. Hermione and Lily visited her every single day, Lily even remaining in Hogwarts over the Christmas break. Sirius had been annoyed that he and Hermione couldn't have Christmas to themselves but understood why Lily felt she needed to stay. Both Lily and Hermione felt extremely guilty over Mary's injuries; Lily because she had allowed herself to be taken away from Mary and left her with Slytherins, and Hermione because it had been her brother that had caused Mary to nearly lose her arm and have permanent scarring on her chest. Along with the guilt was a burning anger, not just from Lily and Hermione, but from all of the Marauders. Nial had been able to get away with the attack for these few months as Mary hadn't woken up and so there was no proof that it was him that had done it. James, however, had gotten a detention for punching Theon in the face after he taunted the group over Mary not waking up.

When Mary had eventually woken up at the end of April all three girls burst straight into tears of both relief, stress and, in Mary's case, pain.

'I'm so sorry!' Lily and Hermione exclaimed at the same time. Hermione nearly shouted Jinx but thought better of it. Even Marauders respected timing.

'Mary I'm so sorry,' Lily tried again. 'I should have never left you alone with those slimy snakes, this is all my fault.'

'No it's my fault! I can't believe my brother would do something like that. How could I have not known he had gone so far?' Hermione cried, her heart breaking all over again for her twin.

Mary pushed herself up in her bed, and gave the two girls the sternest look she could manage through her slowing tears.

'Both of you need to shut up right now,' Mary said weakly. 'This was that bastard Nial's fault, no one else's. I don't care that he's your twin Hermione, we've known for years that you are nothing like him so stop.' Mary was vehement about this. 'How long have I been out?'

'About three and a half months,' Lily replied. 'Madam Pomphrey was able to heal your wounds but there was some head trauma when you fell to the ground which made it too dangerous to wake you up before you were ready.'

'Wow, three months. They'd better not make me take exams after missing this much work,' Mary joked, before she remembered just exactly what she and Nial had fought over, and the smile immediately left her face.

'What's wrong?' Hermione asked. 'Do you need something? Are you in pain?'

'No, but you're about to be,' Mary winced, that could have come out better.

'What do you mean?' Hermione was trying to adjust Mary's pillows and Mary had to swat at her to get her to leave her alone.

'Hermione sit down, the reason Nial got so angry at me was because I first got angry with him.' Mary said slowly, wondering how best to break the news.

'Well that happens to all of us,' Hermione said trying to cheer Mary up as she took her seat again next to Lily.

'Yeah Mary,' Lily added. 'I snap at Avery all the time.'

'The reason I got angry with him,' Mary tried again, 'is because he told me something, something about you Hermione.'

'What about me?' Hermione was getting nervous. 'If it's that I'm adopted then I kind of thought I must be so it's not much of a surprise, in fact it's kind of a relief.' Hermione joked, with an odd nervous chuckle at the end.

'Nial told me, he told me, oh fuck, Hermione he told me that you're engaged to Theon Flint.' Mary blurted out.

Lily gasped, and her hands flew up to her mouth. Hermione was just in shock, much the way Mary was when she first received the news. Hermione had known it was very probable that she would have an arranged marriage as long as she was loyal to her surname, but surely her parents knew how much she hated Nial's friends. They'd thrown her down the stairs for Merlin's sake.

'Apparently Nial was the one who picked him for you, something about being the future head of the house or whatever,' Mary continued when Hermione didn't say anything.

'Oh my god,' Lily whispered, and pulled Hermione into a hug. Hermione was unable to move and just sat there while Lily whispered 'oh my god' over and over again until she let Hermione go.

Eventually Hermione managed to get out in a whisper, her eyes locked onto the wall opposite her, 'So, either I stay with my family and marry Theon Flint, or I get disowned?'

'Seems like it,' Mary said while chewing on her lip with worry.

'I- what do I do?' Hermione asked, looking Mary in the eye as if she held all the answers.

'I don't know Hermione,' Mary replied, feeling so sad that one of her best friends had to go through this.

Hermione's mind was simultaneously blank and a jumble of thoughts. While it may have seemed obvious to some that Hermione should just abandon her family, it really wasn't that simple for her. Family still meant something to Hermione despite the treatment she was subjected to by them. Hermione had nowhere to go, and would have no money, and would have to leave Tiny behind. She would become the worst kind of witch in her family's eyes, and lose all the power she held, power she had dreams of one day using to change the prejudice she saw in the wizarding world. She would lose her brother, a brother that was cruel and evil, but one that she learned to swim in the lake with, a brother that she had always dreamed of making proud when she was younger, a brother that had hugged her and given her chocolate when she fell off a training broom. Hermione was unwilling to see that she had lost that brother a long time ago. Mary was proof of that.

'I need time,' Hermione whispered. 'Can you guys not tell anyone? Even Sirius.' Lily and Mary nodded, looking warily at each other. Sirius and Hermione had never had secrets before.

When Mary was finally allowed to leave the hospital wing two weeks later, the first order of business for the Marauders to throw a welcome back party in the common room.

The fires were roaring, there was a welcome back banner painted by Remus, hanging across the room, and the Marauders had managed to bring bottles upon bottles of Fire whiskey and Butter Beer, along with a few muggle alcoholic drinks that Hermione and Sirius had tried that summer. It was a Friday evening and everyone was very much looking forward to relaxing after such a stressful few months.

Hermione was especially looking forward to having a few drinks after the news she had been living with for two weeks now. Hermione had decided that that evening she would tell Sirius, and surely a few shots would help the information sting less. Or just help her forget completely.

Soon, the party was in full swing with the entire common room packed. People had invited their friends from other houses and people were laughing loudly and enjoying the atmosphere.

Mary was very much enjoying herself, finally free from the Hospital Wing and for the first time feeling completely fine since the attack. Hermione, Lily and Mary spent the first couple of hours dancing in the space cleared in the middle of the common room, unaware that most of the male eyes in the room followed Hermione's movements. Sirius, however, was very aware of this fact, and didn't like the itch he felt all over at knowing that other guys were looking at his Hermione. Especially _Kit Morrison_.

Hermione felt a hand grab hers, and looked to see Kit's sparkling, slightly hazy eyes staring at her, asking for her to follow him. Hermione smiled brightly but slightly breathlessly and let herself be led to a corner of the common room where there were no people to overhear.

'Hey Mione,' he grinned as they sat heavily on the couch. Hermione and Kit had been spending a fair amount of time together since Mary had gone to the Hospital Wing. Hermione found Kit a very relaxing person, and when they kissed it was easy to forget about her problems with Sirius and her family. Perhaps she was using him a bit, but it was nice to have someone that genuinely cared about her happiness. 'Look, I promise you this isn't just the alcohol talking.' Kit winked. 'I have been wanting to talk to you about something for a long time now, but I didn't know how to bring it up.' Hermione felt a sinking feeling in her stomach that had nothing to do with the chips she had had for dinner. Hermione hoped he wasn't about to say what she thought he was going to say.

'Kit,' she tried to interrupt, the alcohol slurring her words slightly.

'No, let me get this out Mione. I don't have your Gryffindor bravery.' Hermione cursed his cute face. Looking to her right slightly, she could see that Sirius was watching them closely, while having a half conversation with Peter by the drinks table. 'We've been close for a year now, and I really like you.'

'I like you too,' Hermione replied, returning her eyes to Kit's face.

'Well I hope so,' Kit laughed, taking one of her hands in his. 'When I kissed you a year ago I was sure I was going to scare you off, but I feel that we've just been getting closer and closer. It's nice to have someone so funny and beautiful take interest in a sap like me.' Hermione laughed nervously, her palms getting sweaty. 'I was just thinking, we've basically been going out for a year now, why not make it official?' Kit laughed, and Hermione could hear that he was nervous. When Hermione didn't reply, Kit added, 'this is normally the point where you say something back.' The smile was slipping from his face.

Hermione cringed inwardly, she had genuinely thought that Kit was happy with the way things were. It was true that neither of them was seeing anyone else, but Hermione didn't think that he had taken that to mean something for the two of them. Hermione had meant it when she told Sirius that she didn't want to be Kit's girlfriend; she really liked Kit, and he was such a change of pace from her Gryffindor friends, but there was something missing and she thought he felt it too. Apparently not.

'Look, Kit,' she began. Kit dropped her hand. 'I really like you, and we get on so well, and you're really fit,' Hermione attempted at lightening the mood. It didn't work. 'but I can't be your girlfriend. I, I don't want to be.' Hermione saw something flicker in his eyes, pain maybe.

'Then what was this year all about?' Kit asked, hurt.

'It was just fun, I thought it was fun for you too,' Hermione winced at how callous she sounded.

'So I'm just fun for you until Sirius is ready?' Kit sounded angry now.

'What?' Hermione asked, shocked that he had brought Sirius into this. 'Sirius has nothing to do with any of this.' Hermione knew this was a lie, but if she wasn't ready to admit it to herself she sure as hell wasn't admitting it to Kit.

'Don't insult me Hermione,' Kit spat and stood up. 'I really liked you you know. I knew you had a thing for him, but since he's always treated you like crap I thought maybe you'd be willing to at least give me a chance. You're the most beautiful girl in the school, hell, you're probably the most beautiful girl in the world, and he will never treat you like he should. Never. As long as you wait for him, you will never be happy.' Tears were streaming down Hermione's face now as the truth of his words burned her heart. Kit's tone became sad and pitying now. 'I won't wait for you like you'll wait for Sirius, Hermione. I know my own worth, and I hope that maybe one day you'll try and learn your own worth too.' With that, Kit walked through the common room and left the party, left Hermione sitting on the sofa.

 _Maybe one day you'll try and learn your own worth_

Hermione furiously wiped the tears from her face, and willed herself to stop crying. Feeling the sofa next to her dip, and an arm wrap around her, she allowed herself to curl into the warmth and the familiar smell of smoke and spice. Sirius. He stroked her hair while she inhaled his smell and tried to stop her crying, despite knowing she was crying over the boy comforting her. Once she was done, she looked up into his face and could see that he was completely gone.

'How much have you drunk Sirius?' she asked, shakily.

'A lot,' he said, shrugging. 'But no matter how drunk I am, I will never leave you crying Mi Mi.' Sirius poked her nose. Hermione blinked, and sat up straight. 'Why are you crying?' Sirius asked with a frown. His hair was messier than usual, and bits fell into his eyes. His cheeks were flushed due to the alcohol, and Hermione didn't know whether it was because she too had drunk a fair amount, but she thought he'd never looked so attractive.

'Kit asked me to be his girlfriend, and when I said no, he said a few things.' Hermione replied, trying to be brief.

'What things? Want me to beat him up?' Sirius made to stand, and Hermione was forced to grab his arm and pull him back down.

Hermione didn't know what possessed her, but suddenly she was pouring out the whole conversation, and Sirius's face got darker and darker with every word.

'That bastard,' he whispered. 'I do not treat you like crap.' Sirius's eyes were unable to focus, and she knew that he wouldn't remember a lot of this tomorrow.

'Listen Sirius, there's something else I have to tell you.' Hermione was scared now.

'What?' he asked, still angry over what Kit had said about him, not registering what it meant about Hermione's feelings for him.

'I found out that I do have an arranged marriage. Remember you asked me in second year if I did?' Sirius nodded, trying his best to focus on what she was saying, and knowing that he should be worried.

'Who?' he asked.

'Theon Flint,' Hermione said, trying to break the news quickly. Sirius went rigid.

'No.'

'It's true Sirius.'

'I won't let it happen,' Sirius said, turning and putting both his hands on Hermione's shoulders, looking her in the eye. 'There is no way you are going to marry that _Death Eater_.' Hermione gasped slightly at the thought of Flint being a Death Eater one day. Of being married to a Death Eater. 'When I can think straight we will figure this out. Hell, I'll even go to the Library if it means saving you. You could marry James! Or Remus! Or Peter! I'll go ask James now, wait here.'

'No! Sirius, wait!' Hermione exclaimed, stopping Sirius from leaving.

Don't say it Hermione. 'What about you?'

'What about me?' Sirius asked, confused.

Do NOT say it Hermione. 'Why can't I marry you?' Fuck. I should not have drunk that Fire Whiskey. Sirius blinked, then started laughing. Hermione just stared at him. Was it really that funny of a thought. 'What are you laughing at?' she asked, irritated.

'You- You're not joking?' Sirius asked, his laughter slowing.

'No, and I would appreciate it if you stopped laughing at me.' Hermione snapped.

'Mione, I would never marry you.' Hermione froze. 'I mean, don't get me wrong, you're fit and whatever, and you're my best friend. But _no way_.'

'What?' was all Hermione was able to get out.

'Look, Mione.' Sirius's eyes were swimming from the whiskey. 'I would never marry you. It's nothing personal. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you, it's just, you're a _Pureblood_.'

He's in love with me?

But I'm a Pureblood?

'What?' Hermione tried again.

'It would make my mother too happy. I have a life plan, to get with as many 'unworthy' girls, guys maybe, to piss off my mother, and when I get older I'll marry a muggle.'

'Am I awake?' Hermione asked. 'What the fuck is going on?'

 _Maybe one day you'll try and learn your own worth._

 _As long as you wait for him, you will never be happy._

Hermione tried to comprehend what he had said, but it wasn't making any sense. 'So you're saying that you love me, but I wouldn't make your mother angry enough?'

'I can't explain it right,' Sirius said, pushing his hand through his hair, frustrated that the drinks were causing his words to come out wrong. 'I can't be in a relationship, I need to focus on myself, and so do you. We can't play these games because we'll just get hurt.' Sirius knew that Hermione was the one for him, but through some sort of self-sabotage he just couldn't bring himself to be with her. She meant to much to him, and he didn't feel like enough for her.

'This isn't a _game_ to me Sirius,' Hermione hissed. 'You're more than just my best friend, and I know I mean more to you too.'

'Hermione,' Sirius took Hermione's hand, and when she looked into his eyes she saw clarity, which made the next words more painful. 'I'm in love with you, the whole school knows it. And I promise to help you get out of this arranged marriage. But I will never be able to be who you need me to be. Besides me, you're the most damaged person I know. You need someone like Kit.' Sirius could feel his heart screaming at him to shut up and hold her and promise to be with her forever, but he knew she could do so much better, deserved so much more. 'Someone to look after you and make you feel special. I'm not that person. I wish I was, but I'm not.'

Hermione felt her heart shatter into a million pieces and drop into her stomach.

'But, our wands-,' Sirius just looked at her and shook his head, and the pity she could see on his expression snapped her out of her shock. Hermione ran, and Sirius made no move to follow. Hermione didn't need to know that she had misread him; it wasn't pity, it was pain.

Hermione fled the common room, everyone too drunk to notice her disappearance. Hermione wasn't entirely sure where to go, but her feet were taking her somewhere. Her Bell Bottom jeans brushed along the floor and her heels clicked, tears fell down her face. When she finally came to a halt, she realised she was at the astronomy tower. The wind blew over her face, and she leant against the railing and allowed it to blow away the thoughts from her mind. Looking out, she could see her and Sirius' rock next to the Black Lake, and she sighed.

'Knut for your thoughts?' Hermione turned around in shock, to see that the voice belonged to one James Potter, stood looking out in the same way she was, a few feet to her left.

'What are you doing here?' Hermione asked, and even in the dim light from the half-moon could see that James' eyes were red from the alcohol.

'Just having a think I guess,' James said non committedly.

'Me too.'

'Was it Sirius?' James asked, and Hermione knew he was referencing the black streaks down her cheeks from the running mascara that Lily had lent her.

'Is it that obvious?' Hermione asked, and looked back out over the lake. Watching the stars twinkle in the reflection, the brightest being the dog star. Sirius.

'Want to talk about it?' James asked, and Hermione realised that she did. She nodded.

'I guess I didn't realise I was holding myself back because of him. My head told me that he wasn't interested, but my heart never listened. And then tonight was so conflicting. I turned down a smart, genuine, fit guy that really likes me for Sirius. And I have no idea why I did because we've never been more than friends, but at the same time we've always been more than friends. And then Sirius says he loves me, and I thought I was going to burst, but in the same breath he tells me he will never be with me.' Hermione ran her hand through her hair, and found she was unable to cry anymore. 'I always just assumed that we would always grow closer, that there were no barriers between us. He saved me when I was at my lowest and loneliest, and I don't know how, but having him but not _having_ him, I feel lonelier than when I was 9 years old and had only a house elf.' She looked over at James and saw that he too was looking out over the lake. 'I feel like he's a part of me, and I've just been told that I have to learn to live without a part of myself, to be incomplete; and I don't know how to do that.' Hermione felt arms wrap around her, and turned to hug James. While Hermione was hurt over what had just happened, she couldn't help but send up a little prayer thanking whoever was listening for James and Remus. While Hermione may have both lost her twin brother and her best friend, Hogwarts had given her two new brothers and they were more than anyone deserved. They stayed together, looking out over the lake, for well over an hour in a comfortable silence, before James suggested they head back to the common room.

As they were walking Hermione realised she had never asked James if he was okay.

'James? Why were you up there?'

James sighed before replying. 'It's nice to be somewhere where you can be completely yourself. Everyone sees me as a happy go lucky jokester so I feel like I can't be sad around people.'

'You can be sad around me,' Hermione replied.

'I know Mione,' James said, smiling slightly at her as they walked. 'My mum's really ill.' James confessed. 'And we don't know if she'll make it.'

'Oh my God James I didn't realise,' Hermione was shocked that James had felt he had to keep that to himself.

'It's okay, she's got a few years left. It just made me realise how impermanent things are, and how I really want to live my life to the fullest I can. I mean, Christ, I've never even kissed a girl. It's stupid, but what if I die tomorrow and I've not had my first kiss.'

'James,' Hermione began, but didn't know how to carry on. They were nearing the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. 'James, stop.' Hermione knew she would never do what she was about to if she was sober.

'What is it?' James asked. Taking a deep breath, Hermione leaned in, and before her lips touched his she whispered,

'No weirdness yeah?' and then she pressed her lips to his. Hermione felt nothing when she kissed James, not the warmth she felt with Kit, and no butterflies. Their lips moved together slightly before they suddenly jolted apart when they heard a gasp. Lily was stood next to the portrait of the fat lady staring at them with wide eyes, before she turned and fled back into the common room.

James and Hermione turned back to each other, confused at why Lily acted like that. They both looked at each other awkwardly for a second, before the absurdity of the situation hit them and they both burst out laughing. James pulled Hermione in for a hug.

'Let's never drink again,' James said, chuckling.

'Agreed,' Hermione said, smiling back at him.

Hermione tried to talk to Lily that evening when she went up to bed, but Lily ignored her and went straight to sleep. Hermione was confused, but figured she could talk to Lily in the morning. However, the next morning Lily was gone before Hermione could wake up, nursing a hangover. This same pattern seemed to keep up, with Lily avoiding Hermione at all costs, and refusing to talk to her when they were forced to be in the same place. This made the last few months of school complete hell for Hermione, as she was being avoided by Lily, and was avoiding Sirius, meaning she was unable to spend time with either of her two friendship groups. Kit was obviously out of the question.

When Hermione boarded the Hogwarts express, James and Remus threw her pitying glances before heading into the Marauder's carriage with Sirius. Hermione felt a bit betrayed, especially by Remus, who she had rescued from being alone on the train in first year. He was leaving her to the same fate.

Slowly, Hermione sank to the ground in the train corridor. This was possibly the first time she had ever been thankful to go home.


	10. Tiny, our hero

**We've hit double digits on the chapters now! Honestly, the last chapter was very emotionally traumatising for me to write, but this one was too so I'm sorry about that. This chapter has been planned for a long time as well. I always knew how I was going to add Sirius leaving his family into my story. Anyway, thank you so much for your reviews, even though some of you aren't happy with me for the last chapter lol! The next song on my Sirius/Hermione playlist for you guys is 'Unsteady' by X Ambassadors. As always, please review and enjoy!**

As Hermione sat on the window seat of her bedroom staring out over the Avery gardens she was struck with a strong sense of déjà vu from when she was a lonely ten-year-old girl, daydreaming before her first ever social event. Hermione almost felt like her loneliness was worse now, as she had not known what she was missing when she was younger.

While, as a ten-year-old, she had been dressed up for a ball in front of hundreds of people, Hermione felt much more nervous today. Her parents had informed her that Theon Flint and his parents would be coming for dinner and she was to under no circumstances ruin the evening. The contract was signed and so she had to make a good impression on her future in-laws, lest it reflect badly on Nial and the rest of the family. Nial was yet to decide on a suitable bride and so the Avery reputation was extremely important. The whole thing made Hermione want to throw up.

Returning her attention to the letter in her hand, Hermione sighed and felt the hole in her stomach grow bigger. The letter was from Sirius, once again. He had sent four letters so far this summer all along the same lines as the one Hermione held.

Hermione,

I miss you. We're best friends, and it just seems so wrong to not be talking. Things are getting really bad at home, Walburga is trying to force me into something that I want nothing to do with. I wish we could sneak into muggle London like we used to, and get pizza and drink fizzy drinks. I didn't realise how much I depended on you until I fucked it up.

Please reply. I'm sorry I hurt you, and the way I said things was wrong.

Love,

Siri

The main thing Hermione took from the note was that he had said 'the way I said things', not 'the things I said'. Maybe this was petty, but all Hermione wanted was for him to turn up on her door step and sweep her away, saying he took back everything he said and that he wanted to be with her. Too many muggle romance novels would do that to a girl.

Deep down, Hermione knew that she couldn't throw away her friendship with Sirius over this. Despite how hurt she was she would get over it; it would just take time.

Hermione was most hurt over the reactions of her friends. Mary had assumed Hermione had the Marauders and so stuck with Lily to make sure she was okay, and the Marauders had assumed Hermione had Lily and Mary while Sirius had no one. The result was Hermione sat by herself in the Kitchens at every meal with just house elves for company. Hermione still had no idea what she had done to piss Lily off, surely she didn't fancy James? She spent every opportunity talking about how much she hated him. Hermione groaned and leaned her head back against the wall. How the hell would any of this ever get sorted?

Thankfully, when Tiny popped into the room Hermione did not fall off the window seat.

'It's time Miss Hermione,' Tiny squeaked, looking worriedly at Hermione and twisting her cloth dress between her hands.

'Everything will be fine,' Hermione said, trying to reassure her protective elf despite thinking that evening would be anything but fine.

'Tiny does not like Mister Theon,' Tiny replied, her wide eyes looking sadly at her mistress.

'You and me both,' Hermione mumbled, before leaving the room and heading towards the entrance hall. Hermione was dressed in a deep red dress, fairly conservative around her chest, but clinging to her legs all the way to the floor. The dress had originally been a light green, but Hermione thought she deserved at least this one act of defiance as she walked into the snake pit. Hermione had no idea how to get out of this marriage without being disowned by her family, but Sirius had promised to help her out and she hoped that he would deliver on that. As much as Hermione didn't want to cut the tenuous links with her family, she knew that if it came to it she would rather be disowned than marry _Theon Flint_.

When Hermione reached the hall, the rest of her family was already there. Her mother was wearing a dark green skirt suit, while her brother and father wore matching black suits with green ties. Hermione hadn't realised green was going to be a theme. Hermione's mother looked at her dress with disapproval, but a look from Hermione's father stopped her from saying anything. Master Avery just wanted this evening to go smoothly.

They were all lined up in perfect formation when the house elf opened the door for Theon and his parents. Theon and his father were dressed much the same as Nial, while his mother was dressed in dark blue dress; Hermione knew she had been in Ravenclaw at Hogwarts. The house pride would have been touching if Hermione did not want each and every one of them to fall into a well. As the rest of her family smiled graciously, Hermione couldn't help but scowl at Theon, that is until Nial inconspicuously stamped on her foot. After a quick death glare at her twin, Hermione turned on her charming smile and the Flint family could see why she was considered the beauty of Hogwarts.

As the group sat down in the dining room, Hermione pretended to be flattered and giggled at all the compliments the family was giving her, and even gave a gracious smile to Theon as he pulled out her chair for her.

'So, Hermione,' Mr Flint began as they ate their starters. 'What are your plans for after Hogwarts? Theon here has told me you are top of the year in all of your classes.'

Hermione was extremely confused as to why a boy she had assumed hated her guts was singing her praises to his parents. Why had Theon even agreed to the engagement? Surely the playground 'pulling pigtails' symbolism didn't extend to laughing as your crush fell down a flight of stairs?

'Um yes Mr Flint, I was blessed with a good memory.' Hermione tried to sound charming so her mother wouldn't poison her later. 'I'm very passionate about the rights of supposed lesser beings, such as house elves, and would love to improve working conditions and rights of such beings.' Hermione snickered inwardly at the appalled looks on the faces around her.

Her mother began to laugh, and put her hand on Mr Flints. 'Hermione is of course joking; you want to go into charity work don't you Hermione? Unpaid of course, hosting functions and the like.' Hermione frowned.

'Oh Hermione dear, you had us going there!' Madam Flint exclaimed. 'I myself am involved in charity work, I would love your input on an upcoming function raising money for the accidental injuries ward of St. Mungo's some time.' Hermione forced a half grimace, half smile and nodded her head.

'I'm sure Hermione would love the opportunity mother,' Theon interrupted. 'She should come over some time before the new year at Hogwarts begins.' Hermione would do no such thing.

'Oh that would be lovely, wouldn't it Hermione!' Her mother exclaimed.

'You could come over and watch me and Nial play Quidditch,' Theon addressed Hermione, a smile on his face that did make him look quite attractive. The devil in disguise. Nial looked about as happy at this thought as Hermione did. 'And of course we could have dinner afterwards, just the two of us.' Hermione felt her skin crawl.

'That would be lovely,' Hermione replied outwardly, and could see her mother smiling smugly.

The rest of the meal continued in a similar manner, Hermione's inner monologue kept her amused until she realised she was playing a game she used to play with Sirius at events. Hermione felt that her life was just so backwards. It was like she was living in two worlds, but she knew there was just no way she fit into this one. She would never be a social butterfly that thrived in the company of Slytherins. At what point in her life did she stop fitting in with her family, or was she just born like that?

Hermione did not think that the meal could get any worse, but boy was she wrong. For not seconds after dessert had been served, there was a massive crash and body landed in the centre of the dining table. Hermione screamed.

'Who is that?' Nial exclaimed, but of course Hermione already knew who it was. The body was completely covered in blood, with lacerations all down its chest and arms and legs. While he wasn't dead, he was close to bleeding out. His black hair was completely matted and stuck to his face, and his eyes were both swollen, a bloody lip and a bruised cheek finishing off the look and hiding the usually aristocratic features. It was Sirius.

'Hermione… help,' Sirius whispered, taking shuddering breaths.

'What is the meaning of this?' Hermione's father cried, standing up. 'Hermione Avery, who the hell is this?' Hermione hadn't heard her father curse before.

'That's Sirius Black,' Theon commented, as if Sirius were nothing more than a bug he had a mild interest in. 'Wasn't he supposed to be inducted this evening father?'

'Inducted into what?' Hermione demanded, conscious of the fact that Sirius didn't have long left. Hermione had to get him out of here.

'None of your business,' Hermione's father snapped, and Nial was looking very pale. 'We must inform Orion of where his son is.'

'NO!' Hermione shouted. 'Can't you see? They did this to him!'

'That is none of our concern Hermione,' her mother replied, sounding about the same as Theon.

'What is wrong with all of you?' Hermione had no idea why no one was concerned that Sirius was about to bleed to death next to the fucking Baked Alaska.

'Hermione how dare you speak like that in front of our guests,' her father admonished.

'TINY!' Hermione screamed, she had to do something, anything, to keep Sirius safe. 'TINY!' Hermione's elf and surrogate mother apparated into the room, and looked at the scene in front of her with wide eyes. She was shaking. Hermione knew what she asked next would potentially kill Tiny, and her heart broke as tears streamed down her eyes, but Sirius needed her.

'Tiny, take us to Potter Manor.' Hermione whispered, her voice breaking. Tiny turned her eyes to Hermione, understanding what she was asking of her, and also understanding that it was a request, not a demand. Hermione always gave Tiny a choice.

'Yes Miss Hermione,' Tiny replied, taking Hermione and Sirius's hands.

'Tiny, you are forbidden from taking Hermione or this man anywhere!' Hermione's mother cried, beginning to get agitated and humiliated in front of their dinner guests.

'Miss Hermione is Tiny's mistress,' Tiny replied.

'You belong to us! If you take either of them away we will kill you!' she screamed, sounding desperate. 'Hermione! If you leave you can NEVER come back. Do you hear me?'

'Loud and clear mother,' Hermione looked her mother in the eyes, drawing on all of her Gryffindor bravery. Hermione's mother took a step back at the coldness in her daughter's eyes. 'It was nice to meet you Mr and Mrs Flint,' Hermione spat.

She blinked, and suddenly Hermione and Sirius were outside the front door of what Hermione assumed was the Potter Manor. It was just as grand as the Avery Manor, but somehow seemed cosy. The lights in the windows were on as the sun had set, and Hermione could smell cooking foods.

As Tiny rang the doorbell Hermione fell to her knees sobbing, still slightly in shock. It had finally happened. She had left her family and sentenced the only being that truly loved her to death, all for Sirius. Of course, there was never any question of the lengths she would go to for him. Sirius was scratched into her heart, and even if he didn't want her and was going to marry a muggle or join the circus, Hermione would always be his. Hermione clung to Sirius, not caring that she was getting covered in his still warm blood, and begged him to open his eyes. His breath was slowing and getting shallower and shallower.

'Sirius,' Hermione whimpered as she pushed his matted hair back. 'Wake up, Sirius please.' Her words were barely coherent through her tears.

'Hermione? What the fuck? Is that, Is that Sirius?' The front door had opened to reveal James dressed in flannel pyjamas, while Tiny stared on unsure of how to help her Hermione.

'James!' Hermione sobbed in relief. 'Help me. He- He's bleeding to death.'

'Oh fuck. Shit. Sirius? MUM!' James shouted.

'Tell him, tell him I forgive him, but I- I just ca- can't. Send me a letter letting me k-know if, if he lives,' Hermione heaved.

'What do you mean?' James asked in panic, but Tiny clearly understood because within seconds Hermione was whisked away from James's front door and appeared on the road side of a small town she had never been to before. Once again, Hermione lay on the floor and sobbed, and could feel Tiny stroking her hair; a trick she had learned helped Hermione when she was just two years old.

'I'm so so-sorry T-Tiny!' Hermione managed through her tears. 'I'm so sorry.'

'Miss has nothing to be sorry for. Tiny had free will.' Tiny said firmly.

'But they'll k-kill you.' Hermione cried.

'Tiny has had a long life, and watched her Hermione grow. Tiny has lived a good life because Hermione will be happy.'

'I don't th-think I'll ever be h-happy again,' Hermione looked up at Tiny, and pushed herself into a sitting position, sniffing. 'How could everything go so wrong in just a few minutes?'

'Tiny thinks everything has gone right Miss,' Tiny replied.

'Wh-what?' Hermione was genuinely confused, and her heart was breaking, which it seemed to do a lot lately. It still never hurt less.

'Tiny never wants Hermione to be like her family. Hermione is good, and Tiny is proud.'

'Do you have to go?' Hermione asked.

'Tiny can feel that they are calling for me Miss. Tiny must go, but Tiny took you to your friend's house. Miss Hermione will be safe, and will be amazing.' Tiny pushed a small key into Hermione's hand which she recognised as the key to her private vault in Gringotts. There was enough money in that vault alone for Hermione and her children to never work a day in their lives, but Hermione would give it all to keep Tiny.

Hermione felt tears building once more, and her throat ached. 'I love you Tiny,' she managed.

'Tiny loves Hermione.' Tiny smiled sadly.

There was a pop, and Tiny was gone.

Hermione was in nothing but her tight red dress and the midnight wind was permeating her skin. She was in the middle of the suburbs and knew only one friend that might live here. Lily Evans. Hermione was not proud enough to sleep outside, and knew she needed to swallow her nerves and go knock on the door. Lily wouldn't turn her away, surely. Pushing herself to her feet, Hermione stumbled the few yards down the path to the front door closest to her. Knocking, Hermione tried to wipe away some of her tears.

Hermione thought she must have got the wrong house when a girl in her late teens answered the door. The girl had a pinched, thin face and looked at Hermione with complete disdain. She was in a night dress and had bright pink curlers in her hair.

'Who are you? Do you know what time this is?' The girl parroted snobbishly.

'Sorry I- I think I got the wrong h-house. I'm looking for Lily Evans.' Hermione began to turn away.

'No, this is the right house. You must be one of _them_ ,' the girl said them as if it was a swear word. 'Of course you would be, look at the state of you.' Hermione smoothed down her hair, slightly embarrassed. Old pureblood habits die hard.

'Could, could you get her?' Hermione asked, trying to sound collected.

The girl huffed and walked back into the house. Hermione could hear her shout 'LILY, THERE'S SOME TRAMP AT THE DOOR TO SEE YOU!' Hermione winced, and felt her nerves grow as what she assumed was Lily's footsteps could be heard descending the stairs.

When Lily came into view, her mouth opened in shock; she had certainly not been expecting Hermione Avery to show up at her door step. The state Hermione was in, Lily could not even begin to think up what she had gone through. She was in a tight red dress, but her hair was an absolute wreck and she was covered in dried blood. Mascara ran down her face and as soon as she saw Lily, she burst straight back into tears.

'Oh my god,' Lily whispered, and ran to Hermione, wrapping her up in a hug as the girl cried into her shoulder.

Lily managed to coax Hermione into some of her pyjamas, and once Hermione was sat on the sofa in Lily's living room clutching a cup of tea, Lily felt confident enough to ask Hermione what was wrong. Lily had not once thought about the fact that Hermione had kissed James. Despite Lily's hurt feelings, Hermione was her best friend along with Mary, and Lily would never dream of not being there for her. Lily sat down opposite Hermione on another sofa, her parents with her. They both looked very concerned and let Lily take the lead in the conversation.

'Hermione, what happened?' Lily asked, almost at a loss for words. Hermione was still crying, but it had slowed enough for her to talk.

'I-I was at dinner with Th-Theon, and I h-had to be good for im-impressions.' Hermione took a deep breath and willed herself to be more coherent. She didn't want to look ridiculous in front of Bill and Rachel Evans, who had been so accommodating to the blood stained girl that appeared on their door step at midnight. 'His-his family was there, but S-Sirius appeared in the room, he mu-ust of used a Portkey. He-he was close to death.' Lily gasped and her hand flew to cover her mouth. 'Theon mentioned that Sirius was supposed to have an ini-initiation. They wanted to send him back but I wouldn't l-let them. Tiny took us to P-Potter Manor, and I left him with James. But I just could-couldn't be around him after what h-happened.' Lily looked confused at this, and Hermione realised she hadn't been able to tell Lily about what Sirius had said to her. 'So T-Tiny took me here. My f-family dis-disowned me, and they said they would k-k-kill Tiny if she helped me. B-but she d-did anyway. A-and now T-Tiny is dead and I'm disowned and I can't be with my best friend and you hate me and I don't know what to do.' Hermione rushed the last bit, forcing her tears to stop as they threatened to become hysterical again.

'Oh my god. Hermione I am so sorry, of course I don't hate you. You can stay with us can't she mum?' Lily looked towards her mother.

'For as long as you need darling. Petunia is moving out at the end of the year, so you can have her bedroom after that.' Rachel said this with so much love in her voice, and Hermione couldn't believe how lucky she was to have Lily, and that she had forgiven her for kissing James. Or even that any of them had understood what she had said.

'Thank you so much,' Hermione whispered.

'You girls should get some sleep,' Bill said as he stood up. 'I'll set up a camp bed in your room Lily.'

As the girls clambered into their beds, Hermione looked over at Lily.

'Thank you for taking me in, even though you're angry with me,' Hermione said in a small voice, scared that mentioning it would cause Lily to remember she was angry and kick her out.

'Oh Hermione I am so sorry. I got so angry and was so mean to you and you didn't even do anything wrong!' Lily exclaimed, sat up in her bed looking at Hermione with big green eyes begging for forgiveness.

'No I'm sorry!' Hermione cried. 'I didn't realise you liked James or I would have never kissed him!'

'I didn't even know I liked him until that point, so I guess you weren't to know either,' Lily said sheepishly. 'So, you and James are together now?' Lily asked, resigned.

'Absolutely not!' Hermione laughed slightly for the first time that day, the thought was just so funny to her. 'He's like a brother to me.'

'Then why did you kiss him?' Lily was confused now.

'He hadn't had his first kiss yet and it was bothering him,' Hermione said, shrugging. 'And the whole thing with Sirius had just happened so I was an emotional wreck.'

'James Potter hadn't had his first kiss?' Lily asked, shocked. 'Wow, he sure talks a big game. And what happened with you and Sirius?'

By the time Hermione had explained what had happened between the two, Lily's mouth was hanging wide open.

'I'll kill him,' she whispered. Hermione laughed at this, her voice still shaking slightly from all the crying.

'Thanks Lily, I'd like that.' Lily snorted at this. 'It just killed me inside to be honest. But the worst thing about it all is that I would still do anything for him. I just got disowned by my family and got my house elf killed for him, and I didn't even think twice despite how much I love Tiny. Does that make me a disgusting person?' Hermione begged Lily with her eyes to say no.

'It makes you a person in love,' Lily sighed. 'And you didn't make Tiny do anything, she chose to help you. She's a hero.'

A few hundred miles away, a nervous James Potter was pacing one of the many spare bedrooms of the Potter Manor, waiting for his friend to wake up. It had been around four days by this point, and the healer had finally said there was nothing more to be done. Sirius just had to wake up naturally.

James heard a groan, and his head whipped around to see Sirius pushing himself up into a sitting position.

'Hermione?' he mumbled, rubbing his head.

'No, it's me,' James replied, breathing a sigh of relief. 'How are you doing? You were close to death mate.'

'I feel like I actually did die,' Sirius said, and attempted a grin.

'Merlin Sirius, what happened to you?' James asked.

'I'd rather not talk about it,' Sirius replied with a croaky voice, his face turning dark. 'Where's Hermione?'

'She er, she dropped you off in a ball gown. She was sobbing, and said she couldn't do it or something, and to let her know if you survive.' James rubbed the back of his neck, feeling awkward at having to tell Sirius this. Suddenly, Sirius swore under his breath and punched the wall next to him. 'Christ Sirius! You really don't need more injuries right now,' James shouted. 'What are you playing at?'

'No James,' Sirius shouted, his voice breaking due to how long he had gone without using it, as he shook out his hand. 'What I need is Hermione, and I fucked everything up!'

'Just calm down mate, you're gonna knock yourself back out if you get worked up.' James was genuinely worried for his friend's health.

'She's supposed to be here,' Sirius whispered, looking down at the bandage on his arm, trying to hide his emotions from James.

'I don't think she's ready yet mate, she needs time,' James tried to explain for Hermione.

'I was lying, bleeding and tortured, on the floor of my drawing room,' Sirius began quietly. 'And instead of thinking of how to escape, or the pain I was in, I was just thinking 'I didn't want to be with Hermione because I wanted to piss off my mother, how fucking dumb can I get'. James, she's perfect. She's beautiful, and funny, and loves me for nothing more than I am, and I threw it away. She'll never want to be with me again.'

'All you can do is try,' James replied as he sat down on the edge of Sirius's bed and put his hand on his shoulder.

'I will,' Sirius promised himself.


End file.
